Gonsalves falters again, but bats bail him out

MINNEAPOLIS -- It was another rough outing for rookie Stephen Gonsalves, who lasted 2 1/3 innings in his fourth career start, but the Twins continued their home success with strong showings by the offense and bullpen against the Royals.
Gonsalves, who was initially scheduled to have an "opener" pitch ahead of him, made the start instead, but struggled in a 10-6 win on Friday night at Target Field. Ehire Adrianza led the way by going 3-for-4 with three RBIs, while Logan Forsythe scored three runs to pace the offense and help the Twins improve to 40-29 at home this year compared with 24-47 on the road.

"It's nice to see us come back," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "Stephen's still having trouble showing enough command with his pitches to give him a chance to be a little bit more successful. The extra baserunners and some mistakes -- getting behind kind of caught up with him there, so we couldn't go too long. But the bullpen was outstanding."
Gonsalves, Minnesota's No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline, was handed an early 2-0 lead but the Royals scored six times in the third. He allowed five straight batters to reach, including a two-run double to Alex Gordon and an RBI single to Jorge Bonifacio and was pulled for Alan Busenitz despite having thrown only 52 pitches. Busenitz came in and promptly served up a three-run homer to Salvador Perez. Gonsalves was charged with five runs on five hits and three walks to see his ERA rise to 11.68 in 12 1/3 innings.

"I've been battling with my fastball," Gonsalves said. "It's just cutting on me and I've been inconsistent with it. I've been working with [pitching coach] Garvin [Alston] on something new every week. My mind has been more on mechanics than competing and I had that struggle early this year with my mechanics all out of whack. It's kind of revolving back to that a little bit and I'm kind of searching for myself."
But the Twins did enough offensively, getting to right-hander Heath Fillmyer for six runs in 2 1/3 innings. Minnesota loaded the bases with two outs in the second, scoring on a bloop two-run single from Adrianza.
"He's done a nice job overall," Molitor said of Adrianza. "Got a little lucky on the first one, but he also hit a bullet there to right field and dropped a bunt later in the game as well."
The Twins came back to tie it with a four-run third, keyed by an RBI single from Forsythe and an RBI double from Jake Cave. Mitch Garver brought home a run on an RBI groundout and Cave scored on a passed ball to knot it at 6.

Minnesota took the lead for good with a three-run fifth against reliever Glenn Sparkman. Forsythe reached on an error by third baseman Alcides Escobar to spark the rally with Cave following with a single. Garver provided another RBI groundout to give the Twins the lead before Max Kepler and Adrianza both brought home runs with RBI singles. Eddie Rosario provided an insurance run with a solo shot in the eighth off Wily Peralta.

"I don't know if he was sitting on that slider that last at-bat," Molitor said. "But it went far."
The bullpen was impressive after the third with Gabriel Moya, Trevor May, Matt Magill, Taylor Rogers and Trevor Hildenberger combining for six scoreless frames. May was awarded the win with two shutout innings.
"The guys we brought in all did a nice job putting up zeros the last half of the ballgame," Molitor said. "Kind of a long affair, but it's good when you come back and win when you fall behind, giving up six runs in one particular inning."
SOUND SMART
With a scoreless eighth inning, Rogers extended his shutout streak to 16 1/3 innings, which is the third-longest active streak in the American League behind Chris Sale and Wade LeBlanc.
HE SAID IT
"I feel great right now. I feel strong. Knock on wood, my shoulder has held up after last year. I came into spring kind of nervous about it. Once I hit May and June, I've felt great and it's still right there. Hopefully, I'll get my starts in and keep going. Right now, I'm working with Garvin every day, fixing the little things." -- Gonsalves, on his health late in the season

UP NEXT
Right-hander José Berríos (11-10, 3.92 ERA) starts the second game of the series against the Royals on Saturday at 6:10 p.m. CT. Berrios has struggled recently, posting a 6.65 ERA over his last five outings. Right-hander Jorge López (1-4, 4.24 ERA) starts for Kansas City.