Twins' HRs, bad luck end Royals' win streak

KANSAS CITY -- For every momentum swing the Royals offense provided for one of the biggest crowds of the year at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the Twins responded with one of their own.

Starter Mike Minor allowed three home runs in seven innings to see the Royals’ five-game winning streak snapped in a 5-4 loss, and while the Kansas City offense continued to click as it has all week, the final push against the Minnesota's bullpen in the bottom of the ninth came up 90 feet short.

With the Royals down a run with Jarrod Dyson pinch-running at second after Kelvin Gutierrez’s double to lead off the ninth against Twins reliever Hansel Robles, Jorge Soler grounded out to shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who bobbled the ball initially but recovered for the out at first. First baseman Miguel Sanó tried to pick off Dyson at second base but overthrew only slightly. Dyson took off anyway and after a 2 minute, 34 second review was called safe, giving the Royals a runner on third with one out.

“He made it. It was a good play,” manager Mike Matheny said. “You get him there with one out, that’s ideal. That’s where we want to be. Last thing we want these guys doing, the way that we play, is to be tentative and afraid of making a mistake. Trust your instincts, trust your skillset, and his skillset’s using his legs.”

Michael A. Taylor got in an 0-2 count before making hard contact -- 100.9 mph off the bat -- on a fastball that landed right in Simmons’ glove. Dyson was running on contact, so he got doubled up at third to end the game.

“It’s a little frustrating,” Taylor said. “For me, I try not to turn a positive thing into a negative. Obviously I want that ball to go through and it changes the game, but I can’t control the ball after it leaves my bat. I’ll take the hard contact and hopefully find a hole next time.”

Matheny added: “Taylor’s trying to do the right thing, drive the ball to the middle, and you’re taking a gamble every time you do that because you are going to be subject to a double play. Doesn’t happen often, but situations like that, you've got to take your chance. Use Dyson’s wheels, and anything on contact, he’s rolling.”

After the Royals tied the game in the second with a two-run single from Whit Merrifield -- who entered Saturday hitting .355 with nine RBIs since May 28 -- Minor needed to have a shutdown inning in the top of the third. Instead, leadoff man Kyle Garlick crushed his fifth homer of the season over the left-field wall. This one came on Minor’s changeup -- a pitch that did register seven whiffs Saturday -- that leaked over the plate.

“We’re in the business of picking each other up,” Matheny said. “It is something we make a big deal of when the guys are out there fighting and putting runs up, that’s the inning we've got to keep the momentum and get back in the dugout and add on.

"We’ve had a lot of back and forth lately, not that the guys have had any less intention or focus, it’s just happening right now. And it’s something we’re going to have to fight our way through."

Taylor helped Minor get out of the inning with a 98 mph laser to throw Nelson Cruz out at home on Alex Kirilloff’s single -- Taylor’s third outfield assist of the year -- and the Royals offense came through again in the fifth. Nicky Lopez, subbing in at shortstop again as Adalberto Mondesi nurses left hamstring discomfort, doubled, and Andrew Benintendi continued his hot streak with his sixth homer of the year, a 411-foot blast to left-center field that gave the Royals the lead.

The Twins’ final and longest answer off Minor came in the sixth, when Nelson Cruz legged out a double that beat Merrifield’s tag at second and Sanó crushed a 449-foot shot to the Royals Hall of Fame on the left field concourse.

“You know you’re supposed to shut them down after we get the lead, and our guys kept doing that for me, and I couldn’t shut it down,” Minor said. “It is frustrating.”

After popping out weakly in the second inning on a slider, Sanó struck out on three pitches -- a slider, curveball and changeup -- in the fourth inning, and Minor was going to attack him the same way in the sixth. The first-pitch slider missed its spot, though, and Sanó did not miss.

“It was a get-me-over slider, and then he hit it and was probably pretty happy with making solid contact for once,” Minor said. “Hit it a long way, two-run home run, obviously killed us right there.”