Salvador Perez’s three-run homer highlighted a five-run first inning against Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe Ryan, who had never previously lost to Kansas City, as the host Royals rolled to an 11-2 victory on Saturday night.
Kansas City starter Stephen Kolek (5-5) yielded two runs on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts over seven strong innings in his second start since arriving from the San Diego Padres at the trade deadline on July 31.
Ryan (13-8) allowed nine earned runs over 60 1/3 innings while going 8-0 over 10 career starts against the Royals — all Minnesota victories — entering this contest. However, Kansas City nearly erased that misery in the first.
He issued back-to-back walks to Mike Yastrzemski and Maikel Garcia, then Vinnie Pasquantino lined an RBI double to right field. Perez followed with the big blow well over the wall in left-center for career homer 298 and 25th this season.
Minnesota’s ace right-hander issued another walk to Adam Frazier, who scored on Nick Loftin’s first of three hits — a double into the left field gap.
Ryan’s night ended after two innings, matching a career low, with all five runs earned, while walking a season-high four against the Royals (73-69), who have won three straight to continue their American League wild-card push.
Ryan reportedly was dealing with an illness and appeared agitated with the strike zone of first-year home-plate umpire Tyler Jones. Ryan has yielded at least five runs in three of his last four starts for the Twins (62-80), who have lost six straight.
The Twins got their only runs in the third against Kolek, beginning with a double from James Outman, who scored on Byron Buxton’s triple to right-center field. Luke Keaschall’s RBI groundout made it 5-2, but they couldn’t further damage Kolek.
Kansas City added three runs in the bottom of the third, all with two out. Kyle Isbel roped an RBI double and scored via a single by Garcia. Pasquantino then added a run-scoring hit.
Carter Jensen’s first major league hit in the fourth went for an RBI double that gave the Royals a 9-2 edge. After Loftin’s run-scoring double in the sixth, Jensen’s second RBI in his third major league game came via a groundout later in the inning.
