KANSAS CITY, MO. — Joe Ryan had two thank yous to give out after notching his second win Thursday as the Twins shut out the Royals 1-0 at Kauffman Stadium.
One is to "the prevailing westerlies," as the starting pitcher/surfer characterized the wind. They prevented Andrew Benintendi's triple to the right field wall in the fourth inning from becoming a home run.
The second is to Nick Gordon, who made an incredible play in center field on the next at-bat to stop the speedy Benintendi from scoring and keep Ryan's six innings clean with only two hits, one walk and five strikeouts.
Salvador Perez dropped a sacrifice fly right into Gordon's glove. Gordon immediately chucked the ball past cutoff man Miguel Sano on the mound to catcher Ryan Jeffers, one-hopping the ball perfectly into Jeffers' mitt in time to tag Benintendi out at home plate.
"Oh, I knew it was a good throw. I was kind of watching the ball and him running at the same time," Gordon said. "So I was kind of seeing the play the whole time it was going. I was just kind of excited about it, anticipating, and it worked out."
That helped the Twins evade a series sweep, improving to 5-8 this season while Kansas City dropped to 5-6. That key defensive moment was especially meaningful considering the team's offensive inconsistency so far this year. The Royals shut out the Twins 2-0 Wednesday, and the Twins' lone run Thursday came on Sano's sacrifice fly in the second inning.
"For him to make a game-time throw like that to keep the game 1-0, that's how championship teams win baseball games and go deep into the playoffs," Byron Buxton said. "[I'm] still pumped, actually. Definitely that to me was my highlight of the day."
Buxton usually would have been in center field to make that play, but he had missed the past five games after hurting his right knee sliding in the Boston series. He returned to the lineup Thursday as the designated hitter and managed one base hit in the fifth inning off Royals starter Zack Greinke, who lasted five innings, giving up six hits, one run, one walk and one strikeout.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said he will wait to see how Buxton responds to this game as well as traveling back to Minnesota before he makes a call on when Buxton will be back in the outfield. Buxton said his knee is feeling fine after shutting down for a couple of days to let the swelling subside and then doing some light work the past couple days.
Even with the time off, he said he feels "locked in" with the team and the season.
"The chemistry and bond that this team has got is different, and you can tell throughout the clubhouse how much fun we have in here," Buxton said. "I know on the field it's not translating yet, but we have a lot of fun out there on the field and in that dugout to compete. We've been in every game this year until things didn't go our way at the end or whatever. But it's those 2-0, 1-0 [games] that's going to make you tougher and stronger for other teams to beat you."
Ryan had his own examples of in-game teamwork. He said catcher Gary Sanchez, who wasn't in the lineup Thursday, gave him some between-innings advice to help him better control his slider. Sano also cued him to pick Bobby Witt Jr. off first base in the fifth. And relievers Jhoan Duran, Joe Smith and Emilio Pagan helped preserve the shutout.
"The team working well together, communicating well," Ryan said. "It makes it a lot easier on myself when I have all these other sets of eyes on me."
