NewsRoyals pour it on in 18-hit rout of Twins
Olivo falls double short of cycle; Davies solid over five
By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com
08/12/09 1:24 AM ET
MINNEAPOLIS -- Who were those guys, anyway? Surely not the lowest-scoring club in the American League.But, rub your disbelieving eyes, it was really the Royals surging to an early lead and rambling to a 14-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night to the surprise of 32,121 fans at the Metrodome. It was the Royals' biggest run explosion of the season.
"Isn't it great to see?" said David DeJesus as he floated through the Royals' happy clubhouse.
Miguel Olivo drove in three runs with a triple, homer and single in his first three at-bats, but a double left him just shy of hitting for the cycle. Olivo also scored three runs; in fact, everyone in the starting lineup scored a run.
Olivo had three shots at a double to complete the cycle, something no Royal has accomplished since George Brett did it on July 25, 1990. In fact, it's been done just six times in the club's 41-year history -- twice by Brett, twice by Frank White and once each by John Mayberry and Freddy Patek.
And Olivo was going for it, but he struck out, walked and struck out again.
"The last at-bat, I wanted to do whatever I could to make contact with the ball," Olivo said. "It didn't happen, but we won the game and I had a good night. It didn't happen for a reason and I'll get it tomorrow or the next day."
Olivo came close one other time, also at the Metrodome.
"In here, in '03 with Chicago. I missed a triple against [Johan] Santana," he said.
His supporting cast was also in fine form.
Alex Gordon drove in two runs on two doubles and Yuniesky Betancourt had two RBIs on a triple and a single. Mitch Maier also had two RBIs and Alberto Callaspo had two singles, two walks and scored three runs. DeJesus had three singles and two walks. Mike Jacobs had three singles.
Heck, everybody in the lineup had a hit except Josh Anderson and everybody had at least one RBI except Callaspo.
A batting bonanza for the boys in blue.
"Wow, we'll take that," manager Trey Hillman said. "It was a great offensive day for several guys."
What's been the toughest inning for the Royals this season? Except for the ninth (when they sometimes don't bat and sometimes sleep through), it's been the first inning -- just 43 runs in 111 games.
So it was an unusual happening when they leaped on Twins starter Nick Blackburn for four runs in the first inning. Billy Butler singled in a run, Olivo sent a two-run triple into the right-field corner and Gordon sliced a RBI double.
"Blackburn had troubles," Hillman said. "I'm not sure what's going on, but that's not the same guy we've seen. He had trouble locating and had trouble getting the ball going downhill. I was glad to see we took advantage of it."
The Royals kept at it.
"When you get behind like that -- I think the first three numbers on the scoreboard looked like an area code -- that's not good," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Can't put area codes up there, 4-2-2. You're behind, and that's bad."
Blackburn was out in the second inning. Lefty Brian Duensing took over and gave up three runs. There was a subplot here, because he was a University of Nebraska teammate of Gordon's. And in between Olivo whacking his 16th homer and other Royals inflicting damage, Duensing managed to strike out Gordon -- twice.
"Ahhh, yeah, yeah, yeah," Gordon said with a grin. "He was actually a college roommate at Nebraska. Yeah, he pretty much embarrassed me and I came in here and texted him and gave him some crap so hopefully he gets it."
The Royals piled up a 9-1 lead for starting pitcher Kyle Davies, good news with just a dab of bad.
"It was one of those things where I was sitting in the dugout for almost 20 minutes between every inning and that's a good thing," Davies said. "But it gets kind of tough to get in a rhythm."
Davies, despite giving up just one run on five hits, piled up pitches. He had 105 through the fifth inning and Hillman pulled him for Ron Mahay, who went two innings and gave up a solo homer to Delmon Young. Doug Waechter had a dismal eighth and got just one out, tagged for three runs. Bruce Chen arrived to get the last five outs, but not before Brendan Harris cracked a solo homer in the ninth.
Oh well. A big lead has significant advantages.
"Any time you can jump out to a lead and let our pitchers go out there and not have to worry about being so fine or what have you, it allows them to make some mistakes," Jacobs said.
In their last eight games, the Royals have not only hit .339 but they've scored 57 runs, an average of 7.1 per game. They've won just three of those games but, hey, maybe there's trend developing here.
That does seem to be something great to see.
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
