Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Royals set a new record for futility with Tuesday's 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
The Royals suffered their 11th straight defeat at Kauffman Stadium to establish a new club record for consecutive home losses in one season. Kansas City lost its first 10 home games to start the 2012 season.
Ryan Doumit paced the Twins' offense with a solo homer and two RBI. Josh Willingham added an RBI single for Minnesota, which has won three in a row and seven of eight.
Samuel Deduno (2-1) tossed six-plus scoreless frames for the visitors. The right-hander gave up four hits while striking out five.
Meanwhile, Kansas City starting pitchers continued to struggle. Luis Mendoza (1-3) allowed three runs on seven hits to go with three walks over 4 1/3 innings.
Starting pitchers for the Royals are now in a stretch of 18 consecutive games without a winning decision. The club has gone just 3-15 during that span.
Despite issuing three walks and hitting a batter over the first three innings, Mendoza was able to keep Minnesota off the board early on.
The Twins' first hit came in the fourth, when Doumit led off the frame with a homer to right-center field.
"I'm just getting back to basics," Doumit said of his fourth homer in seven games. "After a slow start I watched some video and just tried to get back to simplifying things. As far as the team's concerned, we're getting great pitching and timely hitting. That's the key to success."
Minnesota tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Joe Mauer doubled to left and raced home on Willingham's single down the left-field line. Justin Morneau and Doumit followed with back-to-back singles to plate another run and make it 3-0.
Luke Hochevar then took over for Mendoza and recorded the final two outs of the inning.
Kansas City's best chance to score came in the seventh. Lorenzo Cain led off with a double to center which ended Deduno's night, and moved to third when Mike Moustakas lined out to right. Casey Fien recorded the final two outs to keep the Royals off the board, however.
"I had guys on base tonight and definitely needed to come through there," Cain said. "I didn't get it done. We need timely hits right now. I feel like if we get those timely hits, it's a completely different ballgame. As a whole we've all been struggling right now."
Jared Burton and Glen Perkins tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth, respectively, to secure the victory. Perkins picked up his 12th save of the season.
Game Notes
Mendoza fell to 2-2 lifetime against the Twins ... Minnesota started a six- game road trip on Tuesday, while the Royals began a nine-game homestand ... Prior to Tuesday's game, Kansas City reinstated catcher Salvador Perez from the restricted list. Additionally, the team optioned catcher Adam Moore to Triple-A Omaha, claimed outfielder Quintin Berry off waivers from the Detroit Tigers, transferred pitcher Danny Duffy to the 60-day disabled list, recalled pitcher Kelvin Herrera from Omaha and optioned pitcher Louis Coleman to the Storm Chasers.
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