Greinke (right shoulder) exits start early as slump continues 

MINNEAPOLIS -- Zack Greinke maintained he felt good as he headed out for the sixth inning Tuesday afternoon, but during a six-pitch at-bat to Jose Miranda, Greinke began to feel discomfort in his shoulder. And his pitches were off when he checked the Twins’ scoreboard for the movement profiles they show on each pitch.

When Miranda popped up for the first out of the frame, Greinke motioned to the Royals’ dugout. A couple minutes later, he walked off the mound with head trainer Kyle Turner.

The Royals diagnosed the injury as right shoulder discomfort after their 9-3 loss to the Twins at Target Field.

“It just wasn’t coming out the same,” Greinke said. “So, figured it was better to come out then try to keep doing that and make things worse all the way around. Probably wasn’t going to get many guys out and probably would have made my shoulder worse.”

Looking back, Greinke said something could have happened in his at-bat against right fielder Max Kepler in the fifth inning, when he threw a 91.7 mph fastball. That’s harder than his 89.4 mph average, and Kepler fouled off the pitch before striking out swinging on an 86 mph changeup three pitches later.

Greinke said he didn’t realize what happened at the time, and he told manager Matt Quatraro he felt good for the sixth inning. Greinke is known for his honesty, especially when it comes to how he’s feeling, so Quatraro sent him back to the mound for the sixth hoping to get another inning covered with the Royals down four at that point.

“It was definitely the right thing to do to get him out of there,” Quatraro said. “We just checked him out. Very, very mild shoulder discomfort. So we’ll see where we land tomorrow but nothing overly concerning.”

Royals trainers had checked on Greinke in the second inning after he one-hopped off the mound during Michael A. Taylor’s at-bat, but he waved them off. What happened to Greinke’s shoulder in the sixth was not related.

Tuesday was another tough start for Greinke, as the 39-year-old wraps up a likely Hall-of-Fame career that’s now in its 20th Major league season. Despite a 2.30 ERA in May, Greinke is 1-9 this year with a 5.44 ERA.

The Royals haven’t offered him much run support, and that didn’t change Tuesday. Kansas City has scored just 29 runs in Greinke’s 92 2/3 innings this season. Bobby Witt Jr.’s two-run homer in the fourth was the Royals’ only offense of the game until they scratched one across in the ninth inning. They struck out nine times against Twins starter Kenta Maeda and didn’t manage a hit until the fifth on Witt’s 13th homer of the season.

“He’s always been a guy who’s just not going to give in,” Quatraro said of Maeda. “It’s going to be spin, spin, spin, occasional fastball. When he’s locating that slider down, bottom of the zone, strike-to-ball pitches, he can be really tough. You got to have discipline down.”

Meanwhile, the Twins did their damage against Greinke. Greinke has been good the first time through an opposing lineup this season, holding them to a .234 average with only five extra-base hits. On Tuesday, he allowed one run on two hits.

The second and third time through, opponents have batted .288 and .424, respectively. The Twins’ three runs in the third inning (second time through) came on Max Kepler’s three-run homer off Greinke’s sinker, which Kepler was waiting for on the outside part of the zone.

“You’re going to see the ball go all types of directions, but usually he has tendencies,” Kepler said. “He kind of played into those same tendencies today.”

“Honestly, it was a great idea, I just didn’t execute it,” Greinke added. “It’s not an easy pitch to execute. … I don’t really like [throwing the sinker] to lefties too much. That’s the third home run with two strikes to lefties. I’ve gotten seven or eight strikeouts on it. But overall, the results haven’t been that great on it, especially after that one.”

When the Twins’ lineup turned over for the third time in the fifth inning, Greinke allowed back-to-back homers to Donovan Solano and Byron Buxton.

“It’s terrible,” Greinke said of his third-time-through struggles. “It’s been bad for three years now. Maybe four years. This year it’s as bad as it gets. If I pitch just two times through, I’m a valuable pitcher still, but third time through is pretty embarrassing. I’ve been trying different things the past two outings, and I feel better about it. But the results still aren’t that great.”