Morales, Ventura help Royals sink Twins
MINNEAPOLIS -- Kendrys Morales homered and Yordano Ventura pitched seven solid innings to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 7-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night at Target Field.
Ventura stumbled through the early innings, surrendering two homers in the first three innings before settling down and retiring 13 of the final 15 men he faced. He gave up three runs, four hits and a walk while striking out nine in picking up his eighth victory of the year.
Morales, who served a one-game suspension on Thursday for entering the field after an ejection during a game last week, singled, walked twice and added a solo home run in the seventh.
Paulo Orlando also had two hits and made two spectacular catches in the left-center field gap to rob the Twins of extra-base hits.
Raul Mondesi had an RBI double, scored a run on a wild pitch and was one of three Royals players to steal a base.
Miguel Sano and Brian Dozier homered for Minnesota, which has lost four straight games.
Twins right-hander Kyle Gibson (4-7) took the loss, allowing six runs (five earned), 10 hits and two walks while striking out four in five-plus innings. He has allowed six runs and 10 hits in two of his last three outings but lost for the first time since July 17.
Gibson appeared to move swiftly through the first inning, but a two-out throwing error by third baseman Trevor Plouffe allowed Lorenzo Cain to reach and the inning to continue. Eric Hosmer followed by drilling a double to right-center field, scoring Cain for a 1-0 lead.
Back-to-back singles to open the second inning followed by a sacrifice bunt moved two Royals runners into scoring position with one out for Orlando, who ripped a sharp single to right, scoring one. But Gibson struck out Cheslor Cuthbert and a coaxed a pop out from Cain to escape further damage.
Two pitches into the bottom half of the second, Sano launched his 20th homer of the season into the left-field bleachers to put Minnesota on the board. The red-hot Sano has five homers in the last seven games.
After a seven-pitch top of the third by Gibson, the Twins took the lead in the bottom half. Kurt Suzuki led off with a double before Dozier smashed a two-run shot into the bullpens in left-center field, putting the Twins up 3-2. It was Dozier's team-leading 24th homer of the season.
But Kansas City clawed back with two runs in the fifth, getting two singles and a walk to load the bases. With two outs, Gibson snapped Salvador Perez's bat, but the catcher was able to muscle a bloop two-run single just over the glove of Plouffe, putting Kansas City back in front 4-3.
NOTES: The start of the game was delayed 50 minutes by rain. ... The Royals announced that RHP Dillon Gee will get the start on Saturday. After having his most recent turn in the rotation skipped, Gee pitched two innings out of the bullpen in Kansas City's 14-inning victory Wednesday. He threw 32 pitches. Gee is 4-5 with a 4.54 ERA in 23 appearances (eight starts) this season. ... Twins LHP Tommy Milone was placed on the 15-day disabled list with left biceps tendinitis. Milone is 3-4 with a 5.68 ERA in 15 games, including 12 starts, this season. ... Twins LHP Pat Dean was recalled from Triple-A Rochester. Dean is 1-3 with a 5.54 ERA in eight appearances (six starts) with the Twins this season. He is 5-7 with a 5.56 ERA in 16 starts for Rochester. ... Kansas City and Minnesota will continue their three-game series on Saturday night at Target Field. Twins RHP Tyler Duffey will oppose the Royals' Gee.