Nelson Velazquez, Salvador Perez Blast Royals Past Twins 6-1
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The Kansas City Royals took down the Minnesota Twins 6-1 on Wednesday night.
This victory snapped a three-game losing streak and prevented the Twins from clinching the series, as one final game remains on Thursday.
In each of Minnesota’s wins in the first two games of the series, their bats were off to a solid start. The same thing happened on Wednesday evening, as Jose Miranda hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning to give the Twins a quick 1-0 lead.
Kansas City’s bats were ice-cold for a heavy majority of each of the first two games of the series, but that wasn’t the case on Wednesday.
Royals hitting leaders Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez got the scoreboard running in the third inning after an RBI single and double respectively to bring in two runs. In the same frame, Nelson Velazquez launched a solo 431-foot shot to center to increase the lead.
Perez and Velazquez’s bats continued to stay hot in the fifth inning as they each hit solo homers to make the score 6-1. This is the third multi-homer game of Velazquez’s career.
Twins pitcher Bailey Ober's night ended after the fifth inning, as he allowed six runs on nine hits, while throwing four strikeouts on 82 pitches.
Royals pitcher Seth Lugo, who leads all MLB starters in ERA (1.74), did a very solid job of making sure only his team would be doing the scoring after the first inning. In six total innings, he allowed one run on six hits and three walks, while throwing five strikeouts on 100 pitches.
Royals relievers Alec Zerpa, Will Smith and Carlos Hernandez took care of business from there, as they allowed just one hit and walk until the final out.
Kansas City climbs to 35-22 and Minnesota slides down to 30-25 with the final game of the series slated for Thursday at 12:10 p.m. CT.
