Game 80: Twin banged up in 5-1 victory
Minnesota @ Kansas City (Game 3 of 3)
The Twins won their fourth straight road series with a 5-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals but Mike Redmond, Nick Punto and Justin Morneau all left the game due to injury. Redmond took a foul ball off his right forearm in the fifth inning and both Punto and Morneau left in the sixth with back soreness and a groin injury.
Injuries aside, Glen Perkins pitched seven solid innings and held the Royals to a single run off 10 hits after getting some early run support in the form of a solo home run from Michael Cuddyer in the second and Joe Mauer going 3-for-3 with a run in the third and an RBI in the sixth.
Perkins would give up a RBI single to Jose Guillen in the sixth to give the Royals their only run of the game. The Royals would have runners on the corners with one out but Perkins would pitch out of the scoring threat by getting Mark Teahen to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. Perkins threw 92 pitches in seven innings of work and only struck out one batter.
The Twins would tack on two more runs in the eighth inning that would start with a two out single from Matt Tolbert. The Royals bullpen would then give up three consecutive walks, one of which was an intentional walk to Mauer, to give a free pass to Tolbert to give the Twins a four run lead.
R.A. Dickey would pitch 1 2/3 innings of relief before putting runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Joe Nathan came in to relieve Dickey and gott David DeJesus to ground out to first base to end the game and pick up his 21st save.
The win put the Twins two games over 500 for the first time this season.
Attendance: 18,906 (Kauffman Stadium)
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