Twins falter in fifth inning to lose lead, game and series to Royals

In Matt Shoemaker's mind, Sunday's game played out much differently than it did in reality.

The righthander imagined Kansas City's Hunter Dozier, instead of just grounding into a forceout, actually failing to sprint to first in time, giving the Twins a double play. The score would be tied with two outs.

"I felt really good. I feel like I should have pitched three more innings there at least," Shoemaker mused. "We win the game 3-2. Obviously, that's a good-case scenario, but that's the way I saw it."

Instead of Shoemaker's dreams coming true, though, the nightmare scenario manifested. A four-run fifth inning broke the game in the Royals' favor, as the Twins lost 6-3 in front of an announced Target Field crowd of 17,923.

Shoemaker went from retiring 11 consecutive batters from the end of the first inning through the fourth to giving up four hits and a walk plus committing an error on a pickoff attempt. He got pulled in the fifth inning, gifting Kansas City a 5-2 lead.

When he left the mound, leaving the bases loaded for lefthander Caleb Thielbar, Shoemaker sat on the dugout bench, staring off into nothing. He shook his head in disbelief as the question, "How did that just happen?" spun through his mind.

"He kind of got singled to death, it felt like," manager Rocco Baldelli said of Shoemaker's fifth-inning fiasco. "I don't think he went out there and all of a sudden he wasn't sharp. I think it was a combination of getting a little bit later in the game but also some ground balls finding some holes and spots."

That was something the Twins couldn't seem to inflict on their opponents, though, as they were outhit 11-5. Two actual ducks landed on the metaphorical outfield pond in the bottom of the second inning, but the Twins didn't capitalize on the good omen, leaving two runners on in the inning and finishing with 10 left on base.

In all, the team was 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, failing really to take advantage of two bases-loaded situations.

When Kansas City starter Brad Keller loaded the bases with one out in the first inning from two walks and a hit, the Twins only scored once, on a two-out walk to Trevor Larnach after Miguel Sano struck out. In the fifth, after the Royals' outpouring, the Twins again loaded the bases with Josh Donaldson's leadoff double, Alex Kirilloff's single and a walk to Nelson Cruz. But Sano grounded into a double play, scoring a run, before Larnach struck out to end the threat with the Twins still trailing 5-3.

"We've got to find a way to string it together, and we've got to find a way when we get those chances with some guys on bases," Baldelli said. "Maybe not try to do too much. Sometimes putting the ball in play is the best medicine, and that's the only thing that you can really do, and I think it leads to good things. … There's no magic formula for it, though. You've just got to go out there and trust what you know how to do at the plate."

The Twins only other run was Ben Rortvedt's second-inning solo homer to the bullpen, the first of his career. And past Kirilloff's single in the fifth, the Twins didn't have another hit the rest of the game. They put two runners on with one out in the seventh and eighth innings but couldn't generate the tying runs either time, and Dozier added an insurance run with a ninth-inning homer off Juan Minaya.

BOXSCORE: Kansas City 6, Twins 3

Shoemaker ended his day with six hits and five earned runs, including two of the three Thielbar inherited, and saw his record fall to 2-6, even though he felt he pitched well and to mostly weak contact.

But he wasn't dreaming how his fifth inning — however unthinkable — cost his team the game.

"Honestly, I feel like today was one of my best execution days," Shoemaker said. "… I hate to say it. I'm just sick of being unlucky."