Yarbrough pitches Royals to first sweep of season

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals were aware. They hadn’t swept a team yet this season. They hadn’t won three games in a row.

On Sunday afternoon, they finally checked those boxes.

A 2-1 win over the Twins at Kauffman Stadium secured the Royals’ first sweep, and they now have a three-game winning streak for the first time heading into Monday’s off-day.

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A clubhouse bumping with music and fog from the machine in the middle of the room described the Royals’ feeling about finally sweeping a team.

“I told them, ‘Nobody can keep us from winning three straight until August,’ so we had a little fun with it,” manager Matt Quatraro quipped. “These guys, you see it every day, they work, they come out and play hard. So to be rewarded with some wins, it’s something that’s really nice to see. Especially going into an off-day, nothing tomorrow, these guys deserve it.”

After Kansas City put up big offensive numbers the first two games of this series, the bats quieted down in the finale, relying on Freddy Fermin’s solo homer in the second and Maikel Garcia’s RBI double in the third.

But Sunday was all about pitching.

Royals starter Ryan Yarbrough put on a vintage performance with seven innings of one-run ball, lowering his ERA in July to 2.19 with 15 strikeouts and just two walks across four starts. He didn’t issue a walk and struck out five Twins while working around seven hits.

“It’s just a matter of everything we’ve been continuing to do of getting ahead early on, keeping them on their toes, not letting them get in comfortable counts where they’re able to sit on certain pitches,” Yarbrough said. “Even a lot of traffic at times, with one clean inning throughout the whole day, just really trying to make them put it in play and limit the hard contact.”

Yarbrough, who is known for his low velocity, baffled the Twins with his changeup, sinker, cutter and curveball, which registered five whiffs on 10 swings. The lefty had a 32% called strike-whiff percentage and averaged an 87.1 mph exit velocity.

“Well, we haven’t seen an 88 mph fastball, I think, all year,” Minnesota third baseman Kyle Farmer said. “Nor have we seen a 72 mph changeup all year. Tip your hat to him, he throws below the hitting speed. And he got us out front and made pitches.

“He just got us out, really. You can’t really practice hitting those guys because you don’t see them, but probably once or twice a year maybe.”

With just days from the Trade Deadline, Yarbrough has given teams something to think about as the clock ticks closer to 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday. If a team doesn’t land the starter it's targeting, there could be some interest in Yarbrough, who is making $3 million this season and still has one year of arbitration left.

Yarbrough finished seven innings at 78 pitches, and Quatraro thought about bringing him out for the eighth. But it was a good opportunity to see what reliever Dylan Coleman could do in a high-leverage spot against the top of the Twins’ lineup with two lefties in Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton.

Coleman struck out both on his sweeper and got pinch-hitter Edouard Julien to fly out. That set up Carlos Hernández for a save opportunity in the ninth because Scott Barlow was unavailable after having worked hard the previous two nights.

Despite starting the frame off with a pitch timer violation and walking one batter, Hernández notched two strikeouts and his first career save -- earning a celebratory shower of mayonnaise, ketchup, shampoo and who knows what else from his teammates postgame.

“Whatever they could get their hands on,” Hernández said.

Hernández, who has earned more high-leverage situations this season, said he loves the ninth inning. If Barlow is traded in the next two days, Hernández is likely the reliever the Royals will turn to the most to close out games as the season winds down.

“The adrenaline is great,” Hernández said. “It’s a lot of fun. All the fans standing up, screaming and cheering for strikeouts. It’s amazing.”

The Royals gave fans plenty to cheer about this weekend. Now, they’re looking to build on that over the final 53 games.

“There are 50-something games of opportunity,” Quatraro said. “Of Major League at-bats. Of Major League innings. Of the ability to grow for all of us, staff and players, everybody.

“What I expect is what I’ve seen from an effort standpoint, a work standpoint.”