NewsRole reversal: Royals clubbed by Twins
After big night at plate on Tuesday, bats go quiet in loss
By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com
08/13/09 12:12 AM ET
MINNEAPOLIS -- After a 14-run, 18-hit game, maybe the Royals were just tuckered out.Whatever it was, the Royals went down rather easily, 7-1, to the Minnesota Twins as they cooled off along with 30,105 fans on Wednesday night in the Metrodome (outside, 86 degrees, inside, 70). Just 24 hours prior, the Royals had heated up the dome in a 14-6 romp.
The Royals were stifled by left-hander Francisco Liriano, who pitched like a reincarnation of Lefty Grove or Steve Carlton or at least Johan Santana. Certainly not like an 11-game loser.
What happened to the Royals team that had batted .339 and averaged 7.1 runs in its previous eight games?
"We've been swinging the bats well lately and he came with his 'A' game tonight and threw the ball really well," Willie Bloomquist said.
And it began so promisingly, too, when Bloomquist laser-beamed a 3-2 pitch from Liriano into the left-field seats in the first inning. That should have made the Royals lick their hit-thirsty chops.
But not so fast. Of the Royals' next 16 batters, just one reached base (on a walk). There wasn't another hit until David DeJesus singled to right in the sixth. Alberto Callaspo singled in the seventh to no avail.
The Bloomquist home run quietly became a distant memory.
"He settled right down after that," Bloomquist said. "He left a changeup up and I didn't see him leaving too many pitches up in the zone after that. If that was a wake-up call, it wasn't meant to be that. But he got tough after that."
Meantime, Royals starter Brian Bannister got two quick outs in his first frame, but there was no happy ending for him.
"I didn't give us a chance from the start," Bannister said.
The Twins unleashed a barrage of five straight hits, culminating in Joe Crede's three-run homer to left field. That was preceded by four straight singles, by Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer. And all but Cuddyer's looper were hit hard.
"Mauer hit a good pitch, but when he's leading the league in hitting, you expect things like that to happen. You brush it off," Bannister said.
"I didn't make good pitches to Morneau and Kubel, and Cuddyer flared one out there, and I made a horrible pitch sequence to Crede. I have rules that I go by and I broke a couple in there, and I'm extremely disappointed in that at-bat because I could've shut down and stopped the bleeding right there."
The Twins got two more runs in the fourth as Crede singled, Delmon Young doubled, Denard Span hit a sacrifice fly and Orlando Cabrera doubled, extending his hitting streak to 21 games.
"Six out of seven runs with two outs," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "He had decent stuff but, in those situations, you've got to monitor the damage."
Bannister has lost two straight games, giving up seven runs in each, since serving up seven splendid shutout innings in a 4-1 victory at Tampa Bay.
"I haven't felt great since my Tampa start," he said.
In that game, he threw 117 pitches, second-most in his career, and while his arm isn't sore, it's just not delivering the old zip on his deliveries.
"Late life in the zone wasn't there tonight or the last two times like I'm used to," he said.
Bannister has decided to figure a way to get more rest before his next start in the hope of re-invigorating that life. He doesn't want another struggling start.
"The last two starts, I haven't been the same guy," Bannister said. "The pitches haven't been crisp and my command hasn't been quality. I'm fighting through it but my teammates and the fans definitely deserve better than what I gave them tonight. I'm extremely disappointed in it."
Crede's home run came after he'd gone 1-for-13 against Bannister previously, although that one hit also was a homer. And Crede had just missed four games with a sore shoulder.
"Yeah, he hit a home run off me last year in Chicago, but I just did not pitch him well," Bannister said. "I really regret that sequence that I threw. I can't let us get down that early."
Liriano had hardly a thing to regret. He gave up just three hits and one walk in his seven innings and struck out eight.
"A much-needed performance for him and for our ball club, too. He got deep in the game," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "A big first inning. ... Set a good tone for us, gave Frankie a little leeway. He really took it and ran with it."
The Royals' strikeout count grew to 12 as reliever Matt Guerrier got one in his scoreless eighth and closer Joe Nathan fanned the side in the ninth.
"It was different stuff than they had last night; I just didn't believe it was 12-strikeout different stuff," Hillman said.
Instead of 18 hits and 14 runs, his Royals had just four hits and one run. From one extreme to the other.
"Expect the unexpected in baseball," Bloomquist said. "You never know what's going to happen."
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
