Facing the last game of a five-game road trip the Kansas City Royals sat at an even .500 on the trip before facing the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday afternoon. A win would mean the Royals come home with a winning road trip and a streak of not having lost a series yet this season, a loss would make Kansas City just a game over .500 and on a two-game slide. The Royals put together their biggest inning of the year so far, putting up six runs in the top of the fourth and giving Kyle Davies and company enough support to leave Minneapolis with a 10-5 victory and a 7-4 record.
Davies who had struggled vs Detroit earlier in the trip once again got in trouble in the first inning giving up a run and allowing the Twins to load the bases before striking out Michael Cuddyer. On the afternoon, Davies put together a solid middle three innings, sandwiched by getting into trouble in both the first and fifth. He went five full giving up five runs on ten hits, also striking out four.
Twins starter Francisco Liriano cruised along only allowing one runner before the fifth, when a culmination of eight hits produced six runs. The first six batters of the inning all had a hit before Liriano recorded an out, as the Royals batted around. Liriano eventually got out the inning, but the damage had been done as he gave up seven runs on eight hits over five innings.
Minnesota answered with four in the fifth off of Davies to draw within 6-5 before Kanekoa Texeira came on in relief.
Jeremy Jeffress eventually entered in the eighth with the Royals nursing a 7-5 lead and did a great job over two innings only giving up one hit to go along with a strikeout. Kansas City scored three more insurance runs in the ninth, keyed by a two-run RBI double from Alex Gordon to make it 10-5 heading to the bottom of the ninth. Jeffress allowed a single in the ninth, but picked up the save. Davies earned the win and moved to 1-1, while Liriano fell to 0-3, as Minnesota is now 4-7 on the season.
It was good to see hits all around as Matt Treanor was the only Royals batter without a hit, as Kansas City compiled 14 on the day, including six players with two hits a piece. It was particularly good to see Mike Aviles go 2-for-4 at the plate with 3 RBI. Coming into the day he was in the midst of an 0-for-18 slump.
Kansas City comes home to begin an eight game homestand tomorrow evening starting with the Seattle Mariners. Bruce Chen takes to the hill tomorrow against Doug Fister. The game will start at 7:10 pm and be broadcast on Fox Sports Kansas City.