Twins leave themselves defenseless in loss to Royals

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Good thing there was sports overlap in the Twin Cities on Monday night.

Local fans could immerse themselves in the Wild's playoff victory over St. Louis and not pay full attention to the Twins' ragged performance against another team from Missouri.

The Royals outclassed the Twins 7-1 at Kauffman Stadium, or was it the Twins making the Royals look like the classy team? Missed plays, wild pitches and an inability to muster any offense against Kansas City righthander Edinson Volquez and his bullpen marked the night. It was reminiscent of the Twins home opener a week earlier, where the team threw up a clunker in front of a packed house.

The only smile in the clubhouse after the game was one of relief, as catcher Kurt Suzuki, while standing in the on-deck circle, took a lined foul ball by Oswaldo Arcia off his right foot. After a few moments, Suzuki got up. He stayed in the game and hopes to play Tuesday.

That left the focus on the Twins fielders after another shaky night.

"There have been a few of those games where they've had pretty good shape out there, then things kind of break down for us," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.

The Twins were in contention for a while, despite righthander Kyle Gibson not being his sharpest in the early innings. But Gibson found a little groove, and it was a 1-1 game heading into the sixth inning when the night unraveled for the Twins.

Mike Moustakas sent a soft liner to left field that was easily within Arcia's range. He tried to catch the ball off to his left side, with his glove about shoulder high. But Arcia missed the routine play for an error.

"I don't know what happened," Arcia said. "I went to the ball. I missed the ball."

Eric Hosmer walked. Kendrys Morales hit an RBI double that sent Gibson to the showers. While Salvador Perez was at the plate, reliever Blaine Boyer threw a wild pitch, enabling Hosmer to score. Then Morales scored on a Perez sacrifice fly to make it 4-1. The Twins never recovered from Arcia's mistake.

"We'll take a look at it," Molitor said. "We'll do what we can, but you've got to catch the ball, that's an obvious thing."

Kansas City took advantage of more Twins mistakes in the eighth when Morales hit a fly ball to center field that fell in between Jordan Schafer, Brian Dozier and Torii Hunter. The infield was in, so it was up to the outfielders to take charge on the play, but it didn't happen. The Royals then got a two-run triple from Paulo Orlando, who became the first major league player ever to have five triples in his first seven career games.

Defense, particularly the corner outfield spots, was a concern a year ago, as the Twins' defensive ratings for those positions were among the worst in the league. The Twins signed Hunter for his veteran savvy, but the defensive metrics aren't kind to him either.

Less than a month into the season, and Twins already have had a few games where defensive plays in the outfield left them down. And it looks to be a concern again this season.

"I'm not sure if there was miscommunication," Molitor said of the play in the eighth inning. "I'll try to address that with the people who were involved."