Four batters into Friday's game, Twins starter Griffin Jax trailed, 3-0. Four batters into his start, Royals lefthander Daniel Lynch trailed, 4-3.
Weirdest pitchers' duel ever.
Andrew Benintendi hit the first of his two homers, Byron Buxton crushed the longest home run of his career, Josh Donaldson lofted his first three-run homer of the season — all of it in the first inning. But both rookie starters survived the fusillade and allowed only three hits over the next five innings, exiting the game with reason to be relatively encouraged.
The Twins, however, didn't score again over 10 frustrating innings, and the Royals, after tying the game on Michael A. Taylor's fourth-inning double, went quiet until Benintendi connected again in the 11th, earning Kansas City a 6-4, 11-inning win at Target Field.
"We didn't string together the types of at-bats we did in the first inning, certainly, as the game went on," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. As for Benintendi, who has homered five times off the Twins this year, "every year, every team has a couple of guys that are just thorns in our side. He's been that this year."
The game made a winner of Ervin Santana, the 38-year-old former Twin who won his 15th game in his former home park but first since Aug. 29, 2017. But it represented progress for Jax, who is fighting to control his home-run vulnerability in the big leagues, having allowed a homer in all but two of his 14 appearances this year. After a double and a walk in the first inning, Jax slipped up by leaving a changeup low and inside, where Benintendi could turn on it and whip it onto the right field plaza.
"He's just a really good hitter. He stays through the zone very well," said Jax, who also gave up a two-out, game-tying double to Taylor in the fourth. "He doesn't pull off. He doesn't dive over the plate. He's just on essentially everything."
So is Buxton, who jumped on a 94-mph sinker from Lynch and pounded it 457 feet, off the restaurant in the second deck above the center-field juniper bushes.
