Kansas City, MO – Cole De Vries tossed 6 2/3 strong innings on Saturday and the Minnesota Twins dropped the Kansas City Royals, 3-1, in game one of a doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium.
De Vries (4-5) allowed just one run on seven hits with three strikeouts and did not walk a batter to record his second consecutive positive decision. Alex Burnett and Jared Burton combined for 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and Glen Perkins worked around a two-out hit-by-pitch in the ninth to notch his ninth save.
Justin Morneau drove in a pair of runs and Ryan Doumit added an RBI single for the Twins, who have won two of their last three games. Jamey Carroll had three hits in the victory.
Will Smith (4-7) was saddled with the loss after allowing three runs on nine hits and two walks over six-plus innings. He struck out four.
Johnny Giavotella drove in the only run with a single for the Royals, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.
Minnesota jumped on top with a run in the first inning courtesy of a two-out RBI double by Morneau.
Pedro Florimon started the Minnesota fifth with a bunt single and Darin Mastroianni followed with a base hit up the middle to put runners on first and second. Both runners advanced on a sac bunt by Carroll and Josh Willingham was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Morneau then knocked in his second run of the game with a sacrifice fly and Doumit plated Mastroianni with a single to extend the Twins' lead to 3-0.
Mike Moustakas began the Kansas City seventh with a single and Brayan Pena followed with a base hit. Giavotella got the Royals on the board three batters later with a single to left, cutting the deficit to 3-1.
In the ninth, Perkins fanned Moustakas and got Pena to ground out before plunking Jeff Francoeur. Francoeur then went to second on a defensive indifference, but Perkins induced a game-ending groundout from Eric Hosmer.
Game Notes
Despite Friday's washout, the Royals finished the month of August with a 17-11 overall mark, the best ledger for that month since going 15-14 in 2000 ... De Vries improved to 3-0 in his career against the Royals, while Smith dropped to 0-2 against Minnesota ... Minnesota finished 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight on base ... The Twins improved to 24-24 against intra-division competition.
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