KANSAS CITY, MO. – The Twins couldn't have crafted it any better. Gabriel Moya "opened" with two scoreless innings on Thursday, then "primary pitcher" Stephen Gonsalves didn't allow a hit during his outing.
Finally, the strategy was working. Well, sort of.
The problem this time was Gonsalves. While he didn't give up hits he sure did issue free passes. And that led to a brief appearance against the Royals. And once the bullpen door swung open, it didn't stop opening as Kansas City scored four runs in the sixth inning to pull away to a 6-4 win, handing the Twins their sixth consecutive road loss and sixth consecutive loss at Kaufman Stadium.
The Twins led 2-1 in the sixth when the Royals roared past them with four runs. That included back-to-back home runs off righthander Alan Busenitz, the first a two-run homer by Salvador Perez, followed by Jorge Bonifacio's solo shot.
"The guys we brought in," Twins manager Paul Molitor said, "it seemed like they were pitching from behind a lot and making mistakes. You have to pay the price for that and we did."
The Twins are learning a lot during this experimental period, about building a rotation and setting up bullpen roles. But it still comes down to pitchers being able to get outs. That didn't happen on Thursday, as the Twins used five different pitchers over the first six innings. The staff walked seven batters, shockingly the 15th time this season the Twins have walked seven or more in a game.
"Too many baserunners that didn't have to swing the bat," Molitor said. "A couple plays we missed. It wasn't a really good game in that regard."
Gonsalves, who took the mound in the third inning with a 2-0 lead following Jake Cave's homer with a man on in the second, led Twins pitchers with four walks during his three-inning outing. He walked the first two batters of the fourth, then wild-pitched them to second and third before escaping that jam.
