Game 162: Twins sweep KC to force tie breaker
Kansas City @ Minnesota (Game 3 of 3)
In what was supposed to be the last game of the Metrodome, the Twins easily defeated the Royals by a score of 13-4 to force a 1-game tie breaker between the Detroit Tigers at the Metrodome on Tuesday.
Delmon Young kept his hot bat going during the game and hit two home runs, however, his great hitting display was overshadowed by Jason Kubel, who hit a pair of 3-run home runs during the course of the game.
The first of Kubel’s home runs happened in the bottom of the first with two on and one out to give the Twins a quick 3-0 lead. Delmon Young would follow two batters later with a solo shot and the Twins were up by four.
In the third, Kubel would go at it again, this time with two on and no out, and send it flying over the wall in left field to make it a 7-0 ballgame.
The Royals were able to scrape together a run in the top half of the fourth inning as Alberto Callaspo and Mark Teahen would hit back-to-back doubles to break up the shutout. The Twins would quickly get that run back, though, as Young would hit his second solo homer of the night to make it 8-1 in favor of the Twins.
The Royals finally got to Carl Pavano in the sixth and scored a run off a triple from Callaspo. Pavano would retire the next two batters but give up a 2-run shot to Alex Gordon to cut the Twins lead in half.
Pavano would be taken out of the game after going 5 2/3 innings and giving up four runs off eight hits with seven strike outs and a walk. Bobby Keppel came in for relief and gave up back-to-back singles before Gardenhire pulled him for Ron Mahay.
Mahay pitched to one batter and put him on base by hitting him with a pitch and Gardenhire sent in Jon Rauch as Billy Butler was coming to the plate. With the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate, Rauch got Butler look at a fastball to end the inning.
From there, the Twins would go on a scoring spree and leave the Royals behind. They scored in the bottom half of the sixth on an RBI double from Orlando Cabrera and again in the seventh on an RBI double from Matt Tolbert.
The Twins scored three more times in the eighth, once off another RBI double from Cabrera, who would then score on a home run from Michael Cuddyer. It was Cuddyer’s 32nd home run of the season.
Francisco Liriano came in to close out the game in the ninth and gave up one single and retired three batters in 13 pitches.
The Detroit Tigers, who played an hour earlier than the Twins, also won their game against the Chicago White Sox, which leaves the two teams tied at the top of the AL Central. A tie breaker game will be played at the Metrodome on Tuesday afternoon with Scott Baker and Rick Porcello scheduled to start for both teams.
Attendance: 51,155
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