31 March 2024
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — By the time the early innings had come to an end, the only real intrigue left in Sunday’s game was whether or not Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. would hit for the cycle.
The score of the game, after all, had gotten out of hand almost immediately, thanks in large part to an uncharacteristic outing from Twins starter Bailey Ober. The Royals chased Ober from the game in just the second inning in an 11-0 win over the Twins in the series finale at Kauffman Stadium.
“It’d be naïve to say getting punched in the mouth in game three — you can’t really put a bright spin on that at all,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Yeah, we won two games, but we can’t lose like that.”
It was a tough day, beginning in the very first inning, when Ober gave up three runs and then allowed another two baserunners before finally getting out the third out.
In between innings, he said he tried to relax and refocus. But things didn’t go much better in the second inning.
“Some days you go out there and nothing that you do — even when you do your job the way you want to, it doesn’t work out,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Some days you’re also not sharp, and maybe there was a little bit of both here.”
Ober gave up a career-high eight runs on Sunday, getting just four outs before Baldelli emerged from the dugout to take the ball from his starter. At that point, Ober had already given up three home runs, matching a career high.
“(I) executed some, they hit them. Didn’t execute some, they hit them,” Ober said. “Just one of those days.”
His 1 1/3-inning outing pressed the bullpen into action early, with Kody Funderburk covering 1 1/3 innings, Daniel Duarte and Cole Sands each throwing two frames and Jay Jackson pitching the eighth.
The Royals (1-2) first runs of the game, which came on a Salvador Perez three-run shot, set the tone early and provided more than enough run support on a day where the Twins couldn’t muster much of anything against Kansas City starter Brady Singer. The Twins (2-1) finished with just three hits against Singer in his seven innings. He fanned 10 in the Royals’ win.
“He threw the ball where he needed to throw it in pretty much every count,” Jeffers said. “There (weren’t) very many mistakes at all. When you’re in a hole like that, it’s kind of tough to climb out of it in the first place.
Perhaps a lone bright spot for the Twins?
Witt Jr. did not end up hitting for the cycle, despite being 3/4 of the way there just three innings into the game. The young superstar fell a double shy, as Twins pitchers struck him out in his final two at-bats of the day after he spent a weekend demolishing Twins pitching.
“He’s a star-quality player and I would say that pretty easily. He’s a guy that you’re going to want to find ways to control to beat them,” Baldelli said of the 23-year-old, who signed an 11-year extension this offseason. “We’re going to have to deal with him for a while.”