Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Saturday, April 9, 2016
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Saturday, April 9, 2016 Ø Twins fall to 0-4 as Royals rally late. MLB.com (Flanagan and Bollinger) p. 1 Ø Park's first MLB homer bittersweet. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 2 Ø Molitor's defensive strategy doesn't pay off. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 3 Ø Struggling Rosario misses the start. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 3 Ø The 10 most talented Minor League teams. MLB.com (Callis) p. 4 Ø Milone to make season debut vs. Royals. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 5 Ø Twins rally, then regress in loss at Kansas City. Star Tribune (Neal lll) p. 6 Ø Twins notes: Another outfield start for Danny Santana. Star Tribune (Neal lll) p. 7 Ø Twins postgame: Three thoughts following loss to the World Series champs. Star Tribune (Neal lll) p. 8 Ø Five troubling signs (but no conclusions) after Twins are swept in Baltimore. Star Tribune (Rand) p. 8 Ø Twins drop to 0-4 despite Byung Ho Park’s first home run. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 9 Ø Twins’ Byron Buxton still counts Torii Hunter as valuable resource. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 10 Ø Twins’ Kyle Gibson, Trevor May credit chiropractor. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 12 Ø Wetmore’s 5 thoughts: No clutch gene? Park’s first homer, so many strikeouts. ESPN 1500 (Wetmore) p. 14 Ø Park homers but Royals rally to defeat Twins 4-3. Associated Press p. 15 Twins fall to 0-4 as Royals rally late Jeffrey Flanagan and Rhett Bollinger | MLB.com | April 8, 2016 Royals catcher Salvador Perez drove in the tying run with his eighth career triple, and Omar Infante delivered the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in a two-run eighth as the Royals rallied past the Twins 4-3 on Friday night, sending the winless Twins to their fourth straight loss. "We just play hard to the last out," Perez said. "We finish hard." Royals starter Yordano Ventura lasted just five innings and battled command all night. Ventura gave up just two hits, but walked six while striking out six. Ventura left with a 2-1 lead but with runners on first and second and none out in the sixth. "I felt good," Ventura said through interpreter Pedro Grifol. "Six walks … that's not me. But I did feel good." Reliever Luke Hochevar got the next two hitters, but then surrendered an RBI single to Eduardo Escobar, tying the score 2-2. Twins starter Ervin Santana, a former Royal, was somewhat more efficient. He went six innings and gave up six hits and two walks, while striking out seven. He left with the score tied 2-2. Reymond Fuentes gave the Royals a 2-1 lead in the second with a two-run single to right. MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Bottom of the order comes through: Alex Gordon led off the Royals' eighth with a sharp single to right off Twins reliever Kevin Jepsen. Perez then hit a sinking liner toward the left-center gap that left fielder Eddie Rosario dived for, but missed. The ball rolled to the wall and Perez made it all the way to third as the score was tied 3-3. Then Infante delivered a sacrifice fly to medium deep left-center, giving the Royals the lead. "Sal always says in batting practice when he hits one in the gap, 'There's a triple!' " Royals manager Ned Yost said. "I always laugh. But I guess I can't anymore." Infante's sacrifice fly was just as crucial. "Great job by him," Perez said of Infante. "He took some good pitches and then got one and put a good swing on it." Byung Ho Parked: Park picked a good time for his first career homer in the Majors, as he crushed a solo blast in the eighth off Joakim Soria to give the Twins a one-run lead. Park, who hit a combined 105 homers over the last two years in Korea, got all of it, as it left the bat at 111 mph and traveled 433 feet, per Statcast™, despite hitting it into the wind. "The first home run in the big leagues does mean something to me, but the losing streak means more," Park said through translator J.D. Kim. "We need to get our first win." First hit a big one: Fuentes, 0-for-6 coming into the game, delivered a clutch two-out, two-run single in the second that gave the Royals a 2-1 lead. It was Fuentes' first hit as a Royal and his first hit in the big leagues since Sept. 28 of 2013, when he was with the Padres. After Perez singled and Infante doubled with two out in the second, Fuentes attacked the first pitch he saw from Santana and pulled a liner into right field. Escobar ties it: Eduardo Escobar has been Minnesota's hottest hitter early this season, and came through with a two-out RBI single in the seventh to tie the game. Escobar also drew a walk in the second and came around to score on a double from Kurt Suzuki. QUOTABLE "I feel like when I miss right now they're being hit where nobody's at. The hits are definitely falling in right now. Hopefully, it'll turn around here shortly." -- Jepsen, who suffered his second loss in relief this season. SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS The Twins dropped to 0-4 for the fourth time in franchise history, and for the first time since 2012. The other times were in 1969 and 1981. WHAT'S NEXT Twins: Left-hander Tommy Milone, who won the job as the club's fourth starter during Spring Training, is set to make his season debut on Saturday against the Royals. Milone was slated to start Friday, but was pushed back a day after Ervin Santana was moved up two days because he threw two innings on Opening Day because of a rain delay. Royals:Right-hander Ian Kennedy, signed as a free-agent this offseason, makes his first start for the Royals in a 6:15 p.m. CT start. Kennedy was supposed to start last Tuesday but tweaked his hamstring during his last Spring Training start. Park's first MLB homer bittersweet Rhett Bollinger | MLB.com | April 9, 2016 Byung Ho Park picked a dramatic moment for his first career homer, as he launched a go-ahead solo blast off right-hander Joakim Soria in the eighth inning of the Twins' eventual 4-3 loss to the Royals on Friday at Kauffman Stadium. Park, who hit a combined 105 homers in Korea over the last two years, got all of it, as the ball left his bat at 111 mph and traveled 433 feet, per Statcast™. He was able to jump on a 1-1 slider from Soria that stayed up in the zone, and hit it over the fountains beyond the left-field fence despite heavy winds. The Twins, though, couldn't hold the lead after Park's blast, and dropped to 0-4 on the season, which put a damper on his first big league homer. "The first home run in the big leagues does mean something to me but the losing streak means more," Park said through translator J.D. Kim. "We need to get our first win." Twins manager Paul Molitor, though, was happy to see Park get his first homer out of the way, and noted he almost hit one out in his first at-bat of the night, against right-hander Yordano Ventura, only to see it caught at the wall by center fielder Lorenzo Cain. Park, a two-time MVP in Korea, is hitting .222 with two walks in his first three career games. 2 "It would've been nice if we were talking about a game-winner," Molitor said. "He hit the ball really well in his first at-bat. I think the wind kept a couple balls in the park tonight. The first at-bat, he hit that one really well to right-center field. But there was no doubt about that ball hit out there. I wasn't sure if it ended up in the waterfall but I'm glad he got the ball back." Molitor's defensive strategy doesn't pay off Rhett Bollinger | MLB.com | April 8, 2016 After Byung Ho Park's first Major League homer gave Minnesota a one-run lead in the top of the eighth, the Twins had the Royals right where they wanted them with six outs to go. Right-hander Kevin Jepsen, the Twins' best reliever in the second half of last season after being acquired in a trade with the Rays, came in, and manager Paul Molitor opted to go with an all-defensive outfield, replacing Miguel Sano in left field with Eddie Rosario, with Danny Santana in right. But it unraveled in a hurry in the Twins' 4-3 loss, as Jepsen gave up a leadoff single to Alex Gordon before Salvador Perez tripled to left past a diving Rosario, who couldn't quite make the play. It scored Gordon and set up Perez to score the winning run on a sacrifice fly from Omar Infante. Molitor, though, defended his decision to put Rosario into the game, and said it's unlikely he would've been able to keep the ball in front of him even if he didn't dive. "I don't know if he could've," Molitor said. "It was one of those plays that had a lot of carry and it was a tough angle for him to get back and cut the ball off.