Kansas City Royals Remain Undefeated With 7-0 Win Over Minnesota Twins

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Kansas City Royals remained MLB’s lone undefeated team with a 12-3 rout of the Minnesota Twins on April 13.

The defending American League champions Kansas City Royals remained the lone undefeated team in Major League Baseball with a 12-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on April 13.

The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 12-3, on April 13.

With the win, the Royals improved to 7-0 and remained Major League Baseball’s lone undefeated team, per Rhett Bollinger and Jeffrey Flanagan of the league’s official website.

Lefty Danny Duffy pitched 6 1/3 solid innings and outdueled Minnesota’s Trevor May, who started in lieu of Ricky Nolasco, who was sidelined with right elbow inflammation. Kansas City’s 7-0 start is the second-best in franchise history, second only to its 9-0 start 12 years ago, per MLB.com.

“I thought it went pretty well,” Duffy told Bollinger and Flanagan on Monday. “Overall, I felt like I was commanding the ball down. I even threw about four curveballs and three were strikes, so it was nice to see that come back again.”

The Royals’ seventh straight win comes on the heels of the Detroit Tigers’ first loss of the season, 5-4, to the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 13.

RECAP: #Royals cruise past Twins at Target Field, improve to 7-0. http://t.co/6VV6HiqHi6 #ForeverRoyal pic.twitter.com/yLYGq4HatO— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) April 14, 2015

The Royals have been playing so well offensively, they have outscored their opponents 52-18, per The Kansas City Star’s Andy McCullough. The latest demolition on Monday prompted Duffy to say,”Our offense is destroying people right now.”

On this note, Kendrys Morales’ home run in the second inning was Kansas City’s seventh consecutive game with at least one. Aside from his homer, Lorenzo Cain had two RBIs, Eric Hosmer scored twice, Salvador Perez had two hits and scored twice as well, Alcides Escobar recorded a two-run double and Mike Moustakas “reached base three times,” per McCullough.

It was that kind of night for the Royals.

The Kansas City Star update says the turning point came in the bottom of the eighth inning when the Twins were trailing by two runs in their Target Field home opener. That was when Minnesota’s bullpen imploded:

“Trailing by two runs, their relief staff gave up a hit, issued a walk, hit two batters in a row, let a run score on a fielding error, yielded a two-run single to Alcides Escobar and issued two more walks,” says McCullough.

There’s only one undefeated team left in the majors. The @Royals are that team. pic.twitter.com/5oF56kp8qN— CBS Sports MLB (@CBSSportsMLB) April 13, 2015

The Royals gained momentum in the second inning behind poor play from the Twins’ infielders. First, Perez lined up a single which Minnesota second baseman Brian Dozier and shortstop Danny Santana failed to corral, per The Kansas City Star.

Next, McCullough says Santana was unable to plant his foot on the second-base bag on Dozier’s throw after he got his hand on Moustakas’ grounder. Santana’s throw to first base was late, resulting in a bases-loaded situation. Cain drove in Perez from third base with a sacrifice fly.

Twins manager Paul Molitor spoke about his team’s lackluster play, per MLB.com:

“We’re just not making plays. We’re not pitching particularly well. We’re not fielding particularly well. We’re not swinging particularly well. And I’m probably not managing particularly well. So we have to try to be better.”

Minnesota dropped to an American League Central-worst 1-6 (.143) after Monday’s loss to the Royals.