Twins relievers can't hold lead late in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Twins closer Glen Perkins, in the game for a four-out save Tuesday, has a slider opponents hate to see.

While extremely effective, the pitch can get away from a catcher. And with speedy Paulo Orlando on third in the eighth inning of a tie game against the Royals, Perkins stuck with his fastball.

He got two strikes on Mike Moustakas, tried the fastball, got too much of the plate with it and dropped his head as Moustakas flared a single to left to drive in the winning run in the Royals' 6-5 victory at Kauffman Stadium.

"It's tough to go to a slider there with a guy on third." Perkins said, worried that a wild pitch would have allowed Orlando to score. "I have to do a better job with the fastball with two strikes."

But Perkins wasn't the only Twin who left for the hotel in the Country Club Plaza with a bad taste in his mouth. They scored four runs in the sixth to take a 5-3 lead but the bullpen could not make a winner out of lefthander Tommy Milone, who was shaky but fudged his way through 5⅔ innings.

After nine Twins went to the plate in the four-run sixth — six of them getting hits — Milone got the first two outs of the bottom of the inning then walked Orlando on four pitches. Blaine Boyer entered the game, but Christian Colon laced a double to center to make it 5-4. There was a feeling of impending doom, because a one-run deficit is nothing to a team fresh off a World Series appearance that has some power and plenty of speed.

"We had a good game." Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "A lot of good things happened. We just couldn't contain them there at the end."

Twins pitchers seemed to end up one out short of where they needed to be. Milone failed to get through the sixth. Aaron Thompson was asked to get through the seventh, got two outs but walked a batter, forcing Casey Fien to come in and clean up the mess.

Fien started the eighth by giving up a leadoff single to Salvador Perez, who was replaced by the speedy Jarrod Dyson.

In steal prevention mode, Fien fired six pickoff throws to first as Orlando stood at the plate, angering Royals fans.

Dyson didn't get the steal he wanted, but the Twins' work was all undone when Orlando, a career minor leaguer, singled to center. Dyson was on third anyway.

Fien needed to strike out Colon. Orlando stole second, then Colon managed a ground ball to second, scoring Dyson to make it 5-5.

Fien got Escobar to pop out, and Molitor summoned Perkins to face Moustakas, who was 2-for-4 with a homer at the time.

"I've talked to Glen," Molitor said, "and there are going to be times where the possibility of a four-out save or a tie game on the road where you will try to get to the ninth inning.''

''It worked out that way. I had my eyes on Perkins and Moustakas in that inning whether it was 5-4 or 5-5 or whatever it might be."

Perkins was thinking right along with Molitor and started warming up without the call to the pen.

"He made the right move," Perkins said. "There's no two ways about it."

It didn't work out, leading to a tough loss for the Twins to swallow.

"We have to win that game, if we are serious," Perkins said.

"It's one we can't let slip away. And the bullpen, from the start to the end, didn't do their job."