MINNEAPOLIS – A five-run cushion entering the ninth inning turned quickly into a slim one-run lead and an is-this-really-happening kind of moment on Sunday afternoon when the Twins scored four runs, including Josh Bell’s three-run homer off Royals reliever Beck Way, and had the winning run on first base against Royals reliever Lucas Erceg.
A flyout to left field ended it, as the Royals escaped with a 6-5 win at Target Field that should not have been as close as it was at the end. But hey, a win is a win. And the Royals will take those any way they can get them.
The victory gave the Royals a series win in this four-game set against the Twins and ensured they’d head back home with a .500 (5-5) three-city road trip in their rearview mirror.
“It’s going to be a happy bird, I’ll tell you that much,” Erceg said as the Royals packed up to board their flight home.
The Royals started the road trip getting swept in Texas to extend a losing streak to six games. But things started to turn in Cincinnati with a series win. And the Royals really played well in Minnesota with three victories in four games to end their road trip at 5-5. The way the Royals are playing this season, they need to be better than that if there’s any hope of playing back into contention this summer.
But with how difficult the season has been so far for them, they’ll take the .500 trip.
“The [trip] started off kind of poorly, and to come out and split the 10-game trip, and play well at the end – sometimes it goes the other way on these three-city trips,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “For these guys to dig down deep, I’m really proud of the effort.”
By the end of the trip, the clubhouse seemed more relaxed. Winning definitely helps with that, but it’s the way the Royals have won – and even the ones they’ve lost recently, meaning close and competitive games – that have helped the most.
“Everybody knows their role,” Vinnie Pasquantino said. “Which I think is good. We’ve started to move the lineup a little bit around, trying to find the best matchups. We’re just trying different things as a team, and right now it’s working, because the pieces are fitting where we want. We’ve started to put together complete games, where both position players and pitchers are doing their jobs.”
That was evident again Sunday, with starter Noah Cameron’s six strong innings, in which he allowed just three hits and one unearned run with no walks and seven strikeouts. It was Cameron’s fourth quality start in his last five starts, a stretch in which he’s allowed just six earned runs (30 innings pitched).
It was evident, too, with the offense. Back-to-back doubles in the fourth inning tied the game, and in the fifth, the Royals put two on base for the middle of their lineup. Bobby Witt Jr. – who later exited with right knee soreness – struck out, but Maikel Garcia responded right away with a go-ahead opposite-field single. This is the offense the Royals have been wanting to see: Moving the line, picking each other up and playing small ball to stack runs together.
“When you’re a team that doesn’t do a lot of slug, that’s what you have to do,” Pasquantino said. “That’s not a problem. It’s how we’re built. We haven’t gotten rolling with homers yet – I haven’t. … You have to be willing to adapt. I wish I had an .850 [OPS] right now with 13 homers and 50 RBIs. I’ve had the opportunity to do it, I just haven’t done it. But you have to adapt to what you’re doing. OK, if I’m not slugging, I need to do a better job of just being a tough out.”
The Royals did get some slug, too, with Starling Marte’s first homer as a Royal, a three-run shot that went a Statcast-projected 441 feet to the batter’s eye in center field.
“About time,” Marte said with a grin.
Carter Jensen’s sacrifice fly added another run in the eighth, an important run with how that game ended. The Royals will tell you there’s still plenty of work to be done, but these are all good signs of better baseball.
Now they have to continue it at home this coming week – and the rest of the way.
“The guys are believing in what they’ve done, and the confidence in each other,” Quatraro said. “It’s been somebody different every day contributing on either side of the ball, and that’s what’s really important.”