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.
Royals edge Twins in 11 innings as starters settle down after early struggles
Griffin Jax, Daniel Lynch turned stingy after the first inning.
September 11, 2021 at 5:53AM
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.
"You know, normal human beings cannot hit the ball to center field like that," Baldelli admired. "And he's a lean, wiry strong guy and he can do stuff like that. It was a very good swing."
Jorge Polanco followed with a double to left, and Rob Refsnyder lined a single that was scorched too hard to score Polanco.
It didn't matter, though: Josh Donaldson timed a 3-2 sinker perfectly, cranking into the second deck just inside the left-field foul pole, his 22nd homer of the season.
Giving away his lead didn't break Lynch's spirit, however. Like Jax, the highly rated prospect quickly righted himself, retired the next three hitters to end the inning, then gave up just three harmless singles over the next five innings.
Both bullpens were spotless, too, with no reliever from either team coming close to allowing a run until the 10th inning, when Twins righthander Juan Minaya worked out of a bases-loaded jam. But after the Twins failed to score again, too, Minaya's first pitch of the 11th decided the game: another changeup to Benintendi.
This one went the opposite direction of his first one, landing in the first row of seats in left-center field.
"He must like hitting here,' Baldelli mused, "because he's been kind of a devastating presence."
The speculation surrounding shortstop Carlos Correa’s availability in a trade was overblown this week, Twins officials indicated at the winter meetings in Dallas.
