Maikel Garcia drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning, and the Kansas City Royals held on for a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Freddy Fermin also drove in a run for Kansas City, which salvaged a win in the finale of a three-game series.
Ty France drove in the lone run for Minnesota, which lost for only the third time in the past 19 games. The Twins managed only three hits.
Carlos Estevez (2-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the Royals. He walked none and struck out two.
Minnesota’s Jhoan Duran (3-1) allowed one unearned run on one hit in one inning. He walked none and struck out one.
Royals right-hander Taylor Clarke pitched a scoreless 10th to pick up his first save.
Both starters received no-decisions despite recording quality starts.
The Royals’ Kris Bubic limited the Twins to one run on two hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out nine.
The Twins’ Bailey Ober gave up one run on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out three.
The score was even at 1 at the end of nine innings.
Garcia put the Royals on top when he looped a two-out hit into left field. Nick Loftin sprinted past third base and toward home, where he made a foot-first slide to beat the throw from Twins left fielder Willi Castro.
The Twins opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. Ryan Jeffers led off the inning with a double to right field, and France drove him in moments later with a single to center.
The Royals had a scoring opportunity with runners on second and third with one out in the third. Ober worked out of the jam by getting Vinnie Pasquantino to line out to shortstop and Salvador Perez to line out to left to end the inning.
Kansas City had better luck in the seventh. Drew Waters hit a leadoff double to right and scored three batters later on Fermin’s double to center.
–Field Level Media
