Twins bats awake in time

TWINS 10

ROYALS 7

Twins game #3 of the season for me, and the first one without some sort of atrocious weather. And hey, a win! 

Looked like an easy one early. Jorge Polanco hit a two run homer in the 1st in his return from a brief injury, and a pair or ribbie singles made it 4-0 after 1. Didn't even seem to matter that we left em loaded. Didn't even seem to matter that we left em loaded in the 2nd too. 

Bailey Ober was cruising early. Then in the 3rd it abruptly went south. With 2 on and 2 out, the Royals wunderkind prospect Bobby Witt Jr. tripled, then a single brought him home and a game that should have been broken open by that point was just 4-3. 

That inning was the end of Ober's night, but Danny Coulombe came in for the 4th and immediately gave up a walk and 2 singles and the game was tied. 

Trevor Megill came in and drew a double play on a rather gutsy play by Urshela. So we weren't behind but we needed a lineup that often takes the middle of games off, and had already left a lot of lobsters out there, to wake up. 

We got that immediately in the next half inning, as Carlos Correa launched a homerun into the far end of the bullpen. Also a sac fly was added and we were back up 6-3.

And Megill was doing pretty well for a journeyman who I had never heard of a week ago. He put up a couple zeroes.

So naturally Rocco Baldelli the master tactician took him. I mean, we were into the late innings now but whatever. 

Joe Smith was immediately greeted by Witt with a homerun to make it 6-5. Smith then walked a couple guys and Caleb Thielbar had to come in to get the classic 1 pitch out. 

Fireballer Jhoan Duran also struggled some in the 8th, putting a pair on but getting out of it. We were hanging on by a thread.

We needed insurance runs badly, and they came in the bottom of the 8th. Urshela singled Kepler home after a triple. Nick Gordon laced a two run double (and was very excited about it). And Arraez singled home Gordon. 4 very welcome insurance runs....and we needed some of them.

The bigger lead meant we got Yennier Cano instead of the Pagan ritual. But Cano stinks, and gave up a homerun and a long RBI double to make it 10-7. And it was now a save situation so here came Pagan after all, who struck out Nicky Lopez on 3 pitches to end the game. 

Man, beating the lowly Kansas City Royals should not be this hard. You shouldn't need 8 pitchers in a game where you scored 10 runs.