Minnesota blues continue as Royals can't solve Ryan, Target Field

MINNEAPOLIS -- Whether it’s team charter flights landing at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport or fans making the 400-mile drive up Interstate 35, Kansas City’s recent trips to the Twin Cities continue to be unkind.

With a 9-4 loss to the Twins on Friday night, the Royals have dropped 22 of their past 28 games at Target Field. They’ve been outscored 157-88 during those matchups dating to 2022.

“Tough night. We got beat up pretty good,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “They swung the bats well. … We tried to keep fighting through, we had a couple opportunities later in the game, but clearly not enough.”

A loss Saturday or Sunday would secure Kansas City’s eighth consecutive series loss in Minnesota. It’d be especially painful given the Royals (57-59) are four games out of the American League’s final Wild Card spot.

The Royals are also 0-10 in Joe Ryan’s 10 starts against them, with the All-Star right-hander not missing a beat by striking out five over five innings of one-run ball Friday. Ryan’s 1.34 ERA against Kansas City is his best versus any opponent he's faced more than once.

“He’s deceptive,” said right fielder Mike Yastrzemski, who began the game with a leadoff homer. “Hard to pick up. He throws from kind of a funky angle that not a lot of guys throw from … but he’s also around the [strike] zone, so you’ve got to be ready in every count for every pitch.

“When you have a guy that forces you to think that way sometimes, it can be a little tricky.”

It wasn’t much better on the mound as Seth Lugo (8-6) endured his worst start of the season, giving up seven earned runs on nine hits in four innings. Matt Wallner and Kody Clemens both homered against him on sinkers.

It was the most runs surrendered by Lugo since he yielded seven earned runs almost a calendar year ago on Aug. 13, 2024 -- also against the Twins at Target Field. And Friday’s outing came against a reworked Twins lineup after Minnesota dealt 10 players leading up to the Trade Deadline.

“I think you just flush that one,” said Lugo, who is now 0-4 in seven starts against the AL Central this season. “I feel like even executed pitches were getting hit, mistakes were getting hit. … It’s not ideal.”

Things didn’t start poorly for Kansas City on Friday. Yastrzemski, who the Royals acquired at the Deadline, led off the game with his second home run as a Royal on a Ryan middle-middle fastball.

But Wallner answered in the bottom of the first with a solo homer of his own before RBIs from Luke Keaschall and Royce Lewis immediately gave the Twins an early lead.

“It’s tough,” Yastrzemski said. “Sometimes, as hard as it is to do, you’ve got to tip your hat. They had a lot of really good at-bats, some hard-hit balls, some not hard-hit balls, and they just accumulated all together.”

Despite the loss, Bobby Witt Jr. closed in on history by moving within one home run of becoming only the fourth MLB player to tally 100 homers and 100 steals in their first four seasons, joining Bobby Bonds, Darryl Strawberry and Julio Rodríguez. Witt’s 99th home run, a Statcast-projected 456-foot shot to the third deck in left field in the sixth inning, was his longest deep fly this season.