The Royals are coming up with clutch hits, catching breaks, making good plays in the field and getting timely outs from their pitchers. The Royals are in a groove and Wednesday night’s 4-3 win over the Twins provided plenty of evidence.
Starting from the ninth inning and working backwards. After a rare miscue by the Royals defense, a throwing error by Alcides Escobar, that put Joe Mauer on second base with one out, closer Greg Holland proved again he can handle the pressure of the ninth. He struck out Justin Morneau and Ryan Doumit to end the game.
In the eighth inning, after the Twins made it a one-run ball game, Aaron Crow came on for Kelvin Herrera who gave up a run and left Crow with runners on first and third with one out. Crow, wanting to get a double play ball from Chris Collabello, instead struck him out. Then Crow followed that up by striking out Clete Thomas to end the threat.
Minnesota finished the night with 12 strikeouts, four coming in the final two innings with the game on the line.
In the seventh of a 2-2 game, the Royals took advantage of a Minnesota error by Pedro Florimon, allowing Alex Gordon to score after this two out triple. Not satisfied with one run, Eric Hosmer stole second base and was able to score on Billy Butler’s single. Doing the little things helped give the Royals a much needed two-run cushion.
Jeremy Guthrie improved to 11-7 after limiting Minnesota to two runs over six innings while striking out five.
The only downside to this eight game losing streak is the fact that when the winning streak started, the Royals were eight games out of first place. Despite eight wins in a row, the club is still seven behind Detroit in the division.