sports
Double the pleasure as Twins take two from Royals
- Article by: LA VELLE E. NEAL III , Star Tribune
- Updated: September 2, 2012 - 1:08 AM
Cole De Vries' pitching and Joe Mauer's grand slam made it a sweep.
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KANSAS CITY, MO. - One young starter shined. One struggled. But what was important to the Twins was that they picked up two wins in one day.
Righthander Cole De Vries was sharp in the first game, leading the Twins to a 3-1 victory and winning back-to-back starts for the first time in his career.
A grand slam by Joe Mauer handed Liam Hendriks a six-run lead in the second game, but he couldn't last past the fourth inning. Hendriks continues to search for his first major league win, but the Twins held on to beat Kansas City 8-7 in the second game.
"Cole did a real nice job and gave up a chance," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said after the Twins swept the Royals in a doubleheader for the second time this season. "In the second game, Liam really struggled, wasn't able to attack and they jumped him and it didn't look like he was going to get through it.
"It was unfortunate because we put up some runs for him and he had a chance for his first major league win."
Overall, it was still a good day -- and night -- for a team that hasn't had a lot of them this year.
Closer Glen Perkins got saves in both games, becoming the first Twins pitcher with saves in both games of a doubleheader since Rick Lysander on Aug. 18, 1984, against Boston.
The Twins played a true doubleheader for the first time since Sept. 13, 2008, when they won two games at Baltimore.
Remnants of Hurricane Isaac dumped 6.56 inches of rain on Kauffman Stadium in a 30-hour period. Friday's game was washed out, so the Royals scheduled games back-to-back on Saturday -- a two-for-one for baseball fans of the Heartland.
De Vries held the Royals to one run over 6 2/3 innings in the first game. He is 3-0 against Kansas City with a 3.06 ERA. He is 1-5 against the rest of baseball.
"I guess I didn't really know that," he said. "It makes me happy. That's pretty good. Something's working here and at home [against the Royals], whatever it is."
De Vries held Kansas City to a single his first time through the batting order and three hits through five innings. The Twins offense had carved out a 3-0 lead for him by then, on an RBI double by Justin Morneau in the first inning, then a sacrifice fly by Morneau and RBI single by Ryan Doumit in the fifth. And those three runs would hold up.
Would eight be enough in the second game? The Twins scored four runs in the first -- three coming on Chris Parmelee's home run to right -- but Kansas City answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning.
The Twins came right back in the second, loading the bases with nobody out. One out later, Mauer stepped to the plate 13-for-26 in his career vs. Luke Hochevar.
On a 1-2 pitch, Mauer launched a no-doubter 408 feet to right for the third slam of his career and first by a Twins player this season.
An 8-2 lead should have been enough for Hendriks, but he failed to get out of the fourth inning, giving up three runs on 10 hits -- including nine with two outs.
Anthony Swarzak (3-4) replaced him and gave up two runs over 2 2/3 innings, with four other relievers following him.
"I felt like I was locating my fastball better," Hendriks said, "but I wasn't quite locating my off-speed pitches as well and they took advantage of some hitter's counts."
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| Chicago Cubs | 0 | Top 1st Inning |
| Pittsburgh | 0 |
| Detroit | 0 | Top 1st Inning |
| Cleveland | 0 |
| NY Yankees | 0 | Top 1st Inning |
| Baltimore | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | 0 | Top 1st Inning |
| Toronto | 0 |
| Cincinnati - M. Leake | 6:10 PM |
| NY Mets - J. Niese |
| Philadelphia - T. Cloyd | 6:10 PM |
| Miami - J. Fernandez |
| Minnesota - M. Pelfrey | 6:10 PM |
| Atlanta - T. Hudson |
| Oakland - D. Straily | 7:05 PM |
| Texas - Y. Darvish |
| Los Angeles - Z. Greinke | 7:10 PM |
| Milwaukee - H. Burgos |
| Boston - F. Doubront | 7:10 PM |
| Chicago WSox - J. Quintana |
| Kansas City - W. Davis | 7:10 PM |
| Houston - B. Norris |
| Arizona - I. Kennedy | 7:40 PM |
| Colorado - J. Chacin |
| Seattle - A. Harang | 9:05 PM |
| LA Angels - J. Williams |
| St. Louis - A. Wainwright | 9:10 PM |
| San Diego - E. Volquez |
| Washington - S. Strasburg | 9:15 PM |
| San Francisco - M. Cain |
| Memphis | 8:00 PM |
| San Antonio |
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