Twins lose to Royals 2-1, ace Pablo López left the game in with right hamstring tightness
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Cole Ragans struck out 11 in six crisp innings, and the Kansas City Royals beat the sloppy Minnesota Twins 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Kansas City won for the fourth time in five games despite managing just two unearned runs and three hits.
Bobby Witt Jr. scored the go-ahead run on Vinnie Pasquantino’s soft grounder in the eighth. Witt reached when he went all the way to third on a throwing error on Griffin Jax (0-1).
Ragans was charged with one run and four hits. John Schreiber (1-0) escaped a jam in the eighth, and Daniel Lynch IV got one out for his first save.
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Minnesota had runners on the corners in the top of the eighth when Carlos Correa bounced into an inning-ending double play.
The Royals jumped in front in the fourth. Witt hit a one-out double and Pasquantino reached on an error on second baseman Micky Gasper. Witt then scampered home on Salvador Perez’s grounder.
The Twins responded in the fifth. Ty France doubled and scored on Harrison Bader’s single off left fielder Mark Canha’s glove at the top of the wall.
Twins right-hander Pablo López pitched 4 2/3 innings of three-hit ball before departing in the fifth inning because of right hamstring tightness. López struck out six and walked one.
López grabbed the back of his leg after walking Jonathan India. Manager Rocco Baldelli and trainer Nick Paparesta visited the mound and took López out after a short discussion.
“What Pablo has going on is a mild right hamstring strain,” Baldelli said. “He’s going to get an MRI tomorrow to get it checked out. When I say ‘mild’, we think it’s very mild. We’re going to keep him on course. We’re not going to have any change of plans of any kind right now. We’re just going to assess it and see what tomorrow shows us.”
López threw 78 pitches in 4 2/3 innings, allowing an unearned run on three hits and a walk with six strikeouts.
“It took a second for Pablo to process and make a decision as to whether or not he wanted to mention anything,” Baldelli said. “These guys are competitive and they want to stay in the game. He just needed a second to realize the right thing to do was to mention it. I’m glad he did because the last thing we need is for him to go out there and pitch with something that could potentially get worse. Getting him out of the game was a must."
Cole Sands came on in relief for the Twins.
Twins batters are hitting .103 against left-handed pitching this season.
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (0-1, 4.50 ERA) and Royals right-hander Seth Lugo (1-0, 3.27 ERA) take the mound on Wednesday.