Kansas City Royals edge Minnesota Twins 4-3 at Target Field – MLB Update
Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 at Target Field in Minnesota on Friday, June 29 in the opening game of their four match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
With their win against the Twins on Friday, the Royals improved their record to 35-39 and credit must be given to the Manager Ned Yost for leading his side out of testing times. Kansas City may be at the fourth place on the American League Central Division
standings, they still have a chance to make it to the playoffs. It will be some achievement if the Royals can defy all the odds to reach the post-season.
Twins, on the other hand, are at the bottom of AL Central Division standings table with a poor 30-45. Sadly, they lost six out of their last 10 games, which has ruined their post-season chances significantly.
Billy Butler provided the Royals with an excellent start as he singled to centre in the first inning and Alex Gordon scored to put his side 1-0 ahead. Catcher Salvador Perez had a decent time on the plate as he homered to right in the second inning and the
Royals doubled their advantage to 2-0.
"It's always been my experience that good closers know how much they got to work with," Yost said. "He's been a guy that will bend a little bit in these situations, but very seldom does he break. That's his job. You let him get his job done."
"Earlier in the year he was really struggling the third time around," Yost said of starting pitcher Luis Mendoza. "He just waltzed right through them tonight. They couldn't go up there the third time around just sitting on one pitch."
Yuniesky Betancourt doubled to left-centre in the fifth and Eric Hosmer reached on an infield single to second in the seventh to give Kansas City complete control of the situation. Joe Mauer doubled to left and Josh Willingham earned an RBI groundout to
short-stop in the bottom of the ninth to reduce the deficit to 3-4 but the Royals held on to take the series opener.
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