KANSAS CITY ROYALS POSTGAME NOTES MINNESOTA TWINS (57-102) AT KANSAS CITY ROYALS (81-78) - THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB TWINS 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 3 7 13 0 8 ROYALS 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 6 13 2 7 WIN: Michael Tonkin (3-2) LOSS: Kelvin Herrera (2-6) SAVE: Brandon Kintzler (16) STARTING PITCHERS IP H R ER BB SO WP HR PC/S LEFT Kyle Gibson 6.1 9 4 4 1 8 1 0 103/70 Tied 4-4 Danny Duffy 6.1 8 4 4 2 3 0 1 96/63 Down 4-2 ATTENDANCE 2016 Tonight: 29,566 Total: 2,474,927 Average: 31,730 2015 After 78 Home Games: Total: 2,596,994 Average: 33,295 GAME INFORMATION First Pitch 6:15 Temperature 69 F Time of Game 3:16 FRIDAY S STARTERS CLE Ryan Merritt (L) KC Yordano Ventura (R) THE LOSS: The Royals snapped a four-game winning streak and remain one win shy of clinching their fourth straight winning season for the first time since 1975-80. Finished 15-4 vs. Minnesota this season (including 9-1 at home), matching the club record for most wins vs. one opponent in a season (also, 15 vs. Minnesota in 2013). Their nine home wins vs. the Twins are a new franchise record vs. any opponent (previously 8, vs. Chicago in 2016, vs. Detroit in 2001, vs. Texas in 1975 & vs. Minnesota in 1975). They outscored the Twins 124-65 in the season series, including 55-24 here at Kauffman Stadium held Minnesota to four-or-fewer runs in nine of 10 games here this season. Are 46-27 (.630) vs. the AL Central, the second-best intra-division record in the AL, trailing Cleveland (46-26) their 46 wins within this division match a club record (also, 2003). DANNY DUFFY: Went 7-0 with a 3.57 ERA (41 ER in 103.1 IP) at home in 2016, joining Steve Farr (1986) and Larry Gura (1977) as the only Royals to finish a season 7-0 at home he and Andrew Miller (8-0) are the only pitchers in the Majors in 2016 with at least seven wins and no losses at home hasn t lost at Kauffman Stadium since September 5, 2015, extending his club record for consecutive home starts without a loss to 15. Finished the season 12-3 (.800), tied for the best win percentage in Royals history (min. 15 decisions) with Larry Gura (.800, 16-4) in 1978. His 188 strikeouts are most by a Royals left hander (previously, 156 by Bill Butler in 1969) and are 10th most among all Royals in a single season. Finished 2016 with 9.21 strikeouts-per-nine (188 SO in 183.2 IP), second best in Royals history, trailing Zack Greinke (9.50) in his 2009 Cy Young Award winning season. Allowed a leadoff walk and single to start the game before retiring 14 of his next 17 through the fifth inning, allowing only a leadoff walk to Byron Buxton in the third, a one-out double to Kennys Vargas in the fourth and a one-out bunt single to Logan Schafer in the fifth yielded a solo home run to Kennys Vargas in the sixth, the 12th homer he s allowed in his last seven starts allowed a pair of singles to leadoff the seventh, before yielding the go-ahead two-run triple to Byron Buxton and an RBI single, exiting down 4-2 with one out and a runner on first in favor of Chris Young, who stranded the inherited runner pitch count by inning: 25 (1st), 7 (2nd), 12 (3rd), 17 (4th), 11 (5th), 10 (6th), 13 (7th), 96 total. He s 5-1 with a 2.57 ERA (22 ER in 77.0 IP) in 16 career outings (12 starts) vs. Minnesota and hasn t lost to the Twins since June 3, 2011 his career 3.31 ERA (110 ER in 298.2 IP) vs. AL Central opponents is third best in the Majors since 2011 (min. 250 IP), trailing only David Price (2.52) and Max Scherzer (3.23). Held left-handed batters to a.183 average (20-for-109) this season (1-for-5) tonight, including.125 (5-for-40) over his last 10 starts since July 27. PAULO ORLANDO: Matched a career high with four hits (third time; last, August 14 at Minnesota) to extend his hitting steak to seven games, in which he s batting.519/.552/.63 (14- for-27) doubled and scored the Royals first run in the second inning, hit his second double to leadoff the third, singled to leadoff the sixth and singled to leadoff the eighth. DREW BUTERA: Matched a career high with three hits (fourth time; last, May 31 vs. Tampa Bay) had an RBI single in the second inning, singled and scored in the seventh and then singled and scored to leadoff the ninth he s batting.344 (22-for-64) at home this season. SALVADOR PEREZ: Had a pinch-hit RBI single in the ninth inning he s 5-for-10 (.500) with four RBI lifetime as a pinch hitter. WHIT MERRIFIELD: Had the game-tying RBI single in the seventh inning he s batting.311 (28-for-90) in 25 games since his recall from Triple-A Omaha on September 2. KELVIN HERRERA: Was charged with his sixth loss, allowing three runs on a caree-high tying five hits (also, April 8, 2012 at the Angels) in the ninth inning, including the go-ahead RBI single to Robbie Grossman it was just the 10th time he s allowed at least three runs in 351 career outings entered with a 1.32 ERA (5 ER in 34.0 IP) in his previous 36 career outings vs. Minnesota. TWINS: Won for just the second time in their last 12 games, snapping a five-game losing streak on the road remain two losses shy of matching their most in franchise history (104 in 1949). Improved to 20-24 (.455) vs. left-handed starting pitchers this season, winning for just the fifth time in their last 22 games vs. Royals southpaw starters since the start of 2013. Won at Kauffman Stadium for the first time since September 9, 2015 finished 4-15 vs. Kansas City this season (including 1-9 at Kauffman Stadium), matching their most losses vs. a single opponent in one season since moving to Minnesota in 1961 (also, 4-15 vs. Detroit this season & 4-15 vs. Kansas City in 2013). Scored seven runs for the first time since September 13 at Detroit went 6-for-15 with runners in scoring position, their most hits with RISP since August 17 at Atlanta (7-for-23). KYLE GIBSON: Finished the season 6-11, his fewest wins since his rookie season (2-4 in 2013) the Twins went 12-13 (.480) in his 25 starts. Allowed five of eight batters to reach during his 29-pitch second inning, including three straight one-out hits (double, single, RBI single) before allowing a two-out RBI single loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch before escaping the jam trailing 2-0 he retired 14 of 17 outside of the second inning through the sixth, holding Kansas City to a two-out double in the third, a two-out walk in the fifth and a leadoff single in the sixth staked to a 4-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, he allowed three straight one-out hits, including an RBI triple to Jarrod Dyson and the game-tying RBI single to Whit Merrifield pitch count by inning: 7 (1st), 29 (2nd), 12 (3rd), 13 (4th), 17 (5th), 13 (6th), 12 (7th), 103 total. He s 5-4 with a 3.58 ERA (28 ER in 70.1 IP) in 11 career starts vs. Kansas City, including 2-2 with a 2.88 ERA (11 ER in 34.1 IP) in five starts at Kauffman Stadium. Went 2-5 with a 5.31 ERA (35 ER in 59.1 IP) in 10 starts vs. AL Central opponents this season, including 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA (13 ER in 17.1 IP) in three starts vs. the Royals. KENNYS VARGAS: Hit a solo home run in the sixth inning, his 10th homer of the season to set a new career high (previously, 9 in 2014) he s homered in back-to-back games for the third time in his career (also, July 5-7, 2016 and September 2-3, 2014) of his 35 hits this season, 21 have gone for extra bases (60.0%). BYRON BUXTON: Had the go-ahead two-run triple in the seventh inning, his third career go-ahead hit in the seventh inning or later (also, September 17 at the Mets and August 22, 2015 at Baltimore) since his recall from Triple-A Rochester on September 1, he s batting.286/.343/.615 (26-for-91) with 14 extra-base hits (7 HR) and 18 RBI. ROBBIE GROSSMAN: Had the go-ahead RBI single in the ninth inning off Kelvin Herrera, his second career go-ahead hit in the ninth inning or later (also, April 24, 2015 with Houston). MINNESOTA CHALLENGE: The Twins challenged the safe call on Terrance Gore at first base in the ninth inning call was overturned to end the game (1:15 delay). HOME RUNS TEAM BATTER NO. PITCHER COUNT TYPE DISTANCE FIELD INN SCORE MIN Kennys Vargas 10 Danny Duffy 0-0 Solo 421 ft. Center 6th Down 2-1