The Twins pile it on against the Royals

Another game in Minnesota. Another Royals loss.

There are losses. Then, there are bad losses. And then there are exceptionally brutal losses.

Given the stakes in Tuesday night’s game against the Twins, and given that the Royals had one of their best starting pitchers on the mound, and given that the 13 runs they surrendered and their 10-run margin of defeat (both topped only by a 15-4 defeat to the Rangers back in May), the Royals 13-3 loss to the Twins qualifies as exceptionally brutal.

Seth Lugo did not have a good night. The Twins put three runs on the board in the first inning before Lugo recorded an out. Two doubles, a single and an error from third baseman Maikel Garcia accounted for the damage.

Yet I thought Lugo looked ok in the first. Mostly. The Twins fouled off good pitches—especially Willi Castro leading off (who hit a double) and then in a nine pitch battle with Royals Lewis who singled in the the first run of the game.

Pitch three—the slurve low and inside—was just a perfect pitch. Hang it in Louvre as the kids say. I think even Lewis was impressed by how he reacted when it was called a strike. From there, however, Lewis fouled off four of the next five pitches. The ninth pitch, a slider, had plenty of run, but it hung up in a way his sliders usually don’t. It wasn’t in a bad location necessarily, but it was most definitely begging for contact.

The Garcia error, with runners on second and third, was just a poor throw to first on a ground ball. Playing back with nobody out, it looked as though he thought about going home to get Lewis. He passed on the play at the plate (it would’ve been close) and fired across the diamond, a throw short and wide. Two runs.

The run in the third came via a one-two punch of a walk and a double.

This was how Lugo approached Matt Wallner with one out:

A nice curve to start the plate appearance and then Lugo was just all over the place. Four easy takes for Wallner and he was on first.

After spraying his pitches all over the place and surrendering that free pass, Lugo was intent on throwing another first pitch strike. He did.

Lugo actually got away with another center-cut pitch to the first hitter of the inning. Lewis was out in front of a slider that was down the chute and lined out to left. Miranda however, did not miss his middle-middle-offering.

The home run came in the fourth and then it was all over by the fifth. Two singles, a walk and another single ended Lugo’s night.

It seemed like the Twins plan against Lugo was go on the attack early. The battle against Lewis in the first aside, most of the damage came in the first two or three pitches of an at bat. Also, the Twins were absolutely feasting on hanging breaking pitches. Like that slurve above or the slider I noted back in the first. Lugo just left far too many fat pitches bad locations. So a team intent on being aggressive, plus a pitcher missing his spots…That adds up to that exceptionally brutal loss.

When Lugo exited the game, the Royals were down 6-2 and the bases were loaded for Chris Stratton. Two of those inherited runners scored. When Stratton was finished with his night, he left two runners on for Will Smith. Smith gave up a bomb to Max Kepler to take care of those inherited runners. He then gave up a two-run home run an inning later. The bullpen is not enjoyable to write about.

It was 13-3. The Twins recorded 15 hits. Four doubles. A triple. And three home runs. Yep. It was an exceptionally brutal loss.

A couple of other thoughts as this will be a quick entry as the Royals get back at it today in a lunchtime matinee to try to salvage one game in this series.

• The Royals were once again shut down by a pitcher making his major league debut. Zebby Matthews went five innings, striking out five while giving up two runs. The prospect—who was at number 61 on Baseball America’s top 100 list—opened the year in High-A, dominated there and then followed that up with similar results in Double-A. He stumbled a bit for St. Paul in Triple-A, but the Twins deemed him ready to go. He was. Matthews didn’t walk a batter in his first 38 innings this year. He didn’t walk a Royal in his debut.

• As noted yesterday, the Royals have now lost the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Twins. That matters because baseball has decided there will not be a game 163 if teams finish the season with the same record. The Royals have also lost the tiebreaker to the Red Sox.

• The Twins, man. I wrote about it way back in the opening week of the season, it just seems like Minnesota has the clear advantage in a matchup against these Royals. They’re just a difficult team to play. Nothing has changed in the course of the last four-plus months.

Central Issues

Cubs 1, Guardians 2

Cleveland starter Matthew Boyd went 5.1 innings in his 2024 debut, striking out six and allowing just one run. The bullpen backed him up with 3.2 scoreless innings with Emmanuel Clase locking down the victory for his 37th save. Jhonkensy Noel broke a 1-1 deadlock in the sixth with his ninth home run of the year.

Mariners 1, Tigers 15

The Twins weren’t the only team in the Central to hang double-digits against their opponents. Jake Rogers went wild for Detroit, hitting two doubles, a grand slam and driving in seven total. Kerry Carpenter added two dingers while Gio Urshela and Javy Báez also got in on the homer party. Tarik Skubal went six innings, striking out nine.

Yankees 4, White Sox 1

One night after getting curbstomped by the Sox, the Yankees restored order to the baseball universe. Well, Juan Soto restored order. He hit three home runs, accounting for all of New York’s runs. Nestor Cortes shut Chicago down on three hits while striking out nine over seven innings of work.

Let’s take a look at the Wild Card standings today.

I clock a four-team race for the final two spots. And I’m also thinking one of those four teams will be the current Central Division leaders Cleveland. There’s still a lot of baseball to play, but the standings reflect just how a rough stretch can impact the race. The Royals at 4-6 over their last 10 have ultimately lost ground to the Twins ahead of them and allowed the Red Sox and Mariners to close the gap. I’ve been feeling increasingly optimistic about the Royals chances for the postseason, but these last two games have shown that it’s going to be an absolute battle down the stretch. I’m not sold that the Sox or the Mariners are better than the Royals. Same for the Guardians. The team that qualifies will be the team that finds that extra gear over the last six weeks of the season. And one that avoids an extended stretch of bad baseball.

Buckle up.