By MATT PIKE
Bobby Witt Jr. drove in a run with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Kansas City Royals a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
The Royals started the game off with the lead after Carter Jensen led off the game hitting a full-count knuckle curve into the stands in right field. The Twins tied the game though the fifth inning when Austin Martin picked up Minnesota's first hit when he singled to lead off the inning. Victor Caratini followed with a double, and Martin scored on a sacrifice fly from Tristan Gray to tie the score 1-1.
The Twins took a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning on Orlando Arcia's two-out, pinch-hit home run off Matt Strahm. But, with the Royals trailing 2-1 in the ninth, Isaac Collins led off top of the inning with a single against Eric Orze, and pinch runner Tyler Tolbert stole second. Josh Rojas would try to sacrifice him over to third, but his bunt went straight back to Orze, who threw to second base too late to catch the retreating Tolbert.
With no outs still for Minnesota, Kyle Isbel successfully bunted the runners up a base, and Tolbert scored on Jensen’s sacrifice fly to tie the game. Witt Jr. then drove in Rojas with a single to left field to take the lead. The RBI single was the 400th RBI of Witt Jr's career. The Twins tried to rally in the bottom of the inning, as Kody Clemens led off with a double against Alex Lange. But Josh Bell and Austin Martin struck out, and after Victor Caratini was hit by a pitch, Lange fanned Royce Lewis to earn his third save of the season since becoming Kansas City's closer.
Strahm earned the win, improving to 3-1, giving up the one run on one hit in one inning of relief. Kansas City's starter Luinder Avila pitched five innings, allowing one run on two hits with three walks while striking out three. At the plate, Witt Jr was 2-for-5 with an RBI and a stolen base. Jensen was 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBI's.
Kansas City and Minnesota wrap up their series tomorrow, the Royals looking for their second series win in a row. Noah Cameron (2-4, 4.22 ERA, 56K's) is set to start the finale for the Royals against Connor Prielipp (2-3, 5.26 ERA, 42K's) for the Twins. First pitch is at 1:10pm, pregame will begin at 12:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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