Game 160: Young hits grand slam in Twins victory
Kansas City @ Minnesota (Game 1 of 3)
It is the last series at the Metrodome and the Twins are bringing out the fireworks early as they put up 10 runs on the Royals, including a grand slam from Delmon Young in the first inning, as they defeated the Royals by a score of 10-7. The Tigers also lost to the White Sox at home to bring the Twins within a game of first place.
The Twins would connect with three singles in a row to make it a 1-0 game and Michael Cuddyer took a free pass to load the bases. Delmon Young then sent a ball over the wall in left center field for his first career grand slam and made it a 5-0 ballgame in the first inning.
The Twins would tack on another pair of runs in the second when Cuddyer would draw another walk, this time with the bases loaded, to make it 6-0. Young hit into a force out but another run would score to make it 7-0.
In the fourth inning, Jason Kubel hit a solo shot to right field to extend the lead to eight. With two on and no out, Brendan Harris hit a double to score Cuddyer and Matt Tolbert followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 10-0 in favor of the Twins.
Jeff Manship, who pitched with the lead for the most part, worked through the Royals line up in the first four innings with relative ease giving up four singles and picking up three strike outs. He started to show signs of trouble in the fifth inning, though.
Manship would give up a pair of runs in the fifth that was started by a one out double from Alex Gordon. Two singles and a passed ball later it was a 10-2 ballgame. The rough inning would carry over to the sixth where he would give up a single and a walk before being taken out of the game.
Jesse Crain relieved Manship and struck out the first batter he faced before giving up a walk and a single to knock in two more runs. Crain would get credit for 1/3 of an inning before being replaced by Ron Mahay, who gave up a single to his former teammate, Josh Anderson, to score a run and cut the Twins lead in half.
Bobby Keppel pitched in the seventh and into the eighth where he gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning. Jose Mijares came in and loaded the bases after hitting Luis Hernandez with a pitch but picked up the first out of the inning by striking out Josh Anderson. Mitch Maier followed with a 2-run single and Matt Guerrier was sent to the mound, who retired the next two batters on seven pitches.
With a 10 run lead cut down to a three run lead, the Twins sent Joe Nathan out to the mound and retired two batters with strike outs while getting Alex Gordon to pop out to Matt Tolbert in foul territory to end the game.
By picking up the save, Joe Nathan set a team record with his 46th save of the season.
Attendance: 40,223
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