Kansas City Royals reel off 5th straight win

The Kansas City Royals’ Justin Maxwell (27) celebrates with teammates after he scored in the fourth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Saturday

The Kansas City Royals won their 5th straight game today with a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins in front of 24,000+ happy fans at Kauffman Stadium. The story of this game was definitely the play of the Royals’ bullpen. Bruce Chen and the Royals took a 5-4 lead into the 6th inning before turning it over to the Royal relievers. Danny Duffy started things off with a walk, only to put away the next 6 hitters in a row. Wade Davis followed suit in the 8th as he sat down three straight batters before handing the ball off to closer Greg Holland in the 9th. Holland, not wanting to be out done, came in throwing strikes of his own and dominated the final three batters of the game including a strike out of 3 time batting champion Joe Mauer.

The Royals defense again shined, and bailed out pitcher Bruce Chen with nice plays in the outfield, and a timely double play with the bases loaded started by Mike Moustakas. Chen again looked very hittable on the mound, throwing 5 innings, while giving up 8 hits, and 4 runs. If this keeps up it makes you wonder how much longer Danny Duffy will stay in the bullpen. Remember it was Chen who started in the Pen last year, and actually was a nice option in the middle innings.

The Royals did all their damage offensively in one inning (the 4th), sending 9 batters to the plate and scoring 5 runs. Alex Gordon started the inning off with his second lead-off hit of the game. Billy Butler followed with a double on a misplay by Twins right fielder Chris Colabello. Moustakas then got Gordo home and Butler to third on a deep sac fly to Center. Justin Maxwell later singled Butler in, Alicdes Escobar was hit by a pitch, Nori Aoki and Omar Infante both singled, add in a throwing error, and boom the Royals scored 5 runs.

This was the Royals’ 5th straight win, and put them two games over .500. It also kept them tied with the Tigers for first place in the A.L Central.