Twins 9, Royals 3: Twins Turn Back the Royals on Independence Day

[Steven Trefz]

The Twins entered Tuesday's Independence Day battle with the Royals looking to continue the fireworks display that started late in Monday night's game. This 4th of July had an international flair, as Kenta Maeda took the hill, and shut the lights out. Max Kepler stepped up to the plate, and launched some rockets. Celebration was the name of the game at Target Field!

Image courtesy of Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score:
Starting pitcher: Kenta Maeda: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO ( 87 pitches, 59 strikes, 68%)
Home Runs: Max Kepler (12), Donovan Solano (4), Byron Buxton (15)
Top 3 WPS: Kepler (.310), Maeda (.175), Solano (.157)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

The Twins looked sharp in their home whites and Independence Day red caps. The Twins pitching and hitting looked sharp as well. Maeda set the tone by striking out the first four batters that he faced. Kepler set the tone by driving in a run with a two-out single to left in the first inning. Then Kepler set an even louder tone with two outs in the third inning to make it 4-0.

The Royals Don't Give Up Without a Fight
Jose Miranda led off the top of the fourth inning with an error, which gave the Royals only their second baserunner of the game. Bobby Witt Jr. then tried to break someone's face in the bullpen to make it 4-2. The home run was 106.8 off of the bat, and Maeda almost suffered whiplash trying to track it. The Twins relievers looked less than impressed.

The Twins Like Hitting Against Zach Greinke
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Donovan Solano stepped to the plate and sent a long fly ball to the Fishing Porch in right. One potted plant was harmed in the filming of this highlight, but it will be forever remembered as the place Solano's fourth homer of 2023 landed.

Byron Buxton stepped up to the plate directly after Solano put the vest on, and he politely said to "Give that to me now!" After back-to-back solo rockets, the Twins were up 6-2.

Did I Mention that Kenta Maeda Dominated Today?
Seven innings, one earned run, three hits, nine strike outs. Maeda took control of the game early, and maintained it late. The Royals were never "in the game" with Maeda on the mound and the bats were relaxed as they worked to back him up.

Did I Mention the Twins Offense was Awesome Today?
The Twins clutch two-out hitting continued into the seventh inning, when Alex Kirilloff lined a single to center to plate Buxton (whole stole second to get into scoring position!) and Solano to make it 8-2. It felt like an honest to goodness baseball play. 

The Twins kept rolling off of reliever Nick Wittgren from there, taking a walk, hit by pitch, and a walk to Willi Castro to plate Kirilloff to make it 9-2. The offensive drought appears to be lifting, or its the Royals, either way we don't care. It's amazing.

Celebrating Lopez's Return: Jorge Lopez returned from his mental health stint, and it's great to seem him back and with his teammates. Lopez took the mound for the ninth inning, and things didn't go "smoothly," but a double-play ended the inning with only one run allowed. His return will be a key to the second half of the season, so it was good to provide him a chance to get that first outing under his belt.

What's Next: Twins RHP Pablo Lopez (4-5, 4.24 ERA) looks to celebrate Pablo Day with a sweep, while the Royals counter with RHP Alec Marsh (0-1, 11.25 ERA) who makes his second career start after surrendering five runs in only four innings versus the Dodgers in his first start. Is this going to be one of those beloved "trap games," or can the game be judged by its cover? First Pitch at Target Field is scheduled for 6:40pm.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Pagán	19	0	6	25	0	50
Durán	0	8	34	0	0	42
Morán	8	0	0	17	0	25
Jax	0	11	14	0	0	25
Balazovic	9	0	0	6	0	15
Ortega	0	0	0	0	13	13
J. Lopez	0	0	0	0	8	8
Winder	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

Follow Steve Trefz @TwinsTrefz

 

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[rwilfong86]

Good to see Jorge Lopez back with the team

[jmlease1]

I don't care if he was facing the sorry, no-account (tm Mike Wilbon) KC Royals, Kenta Maeda dominated and it's great to see. You play the team in front of you, and you don't get extra credit for beating better teams. But Maeda did the job for 7 innings and it's exactly what what the Twins needed.

Also, it seems like every time I crap all over Kepler and declare I'm ready to be done with him he does something great, so...guess I need to keep trashing him? I'm not convinced he can keep this up, but ride this horse all the way to the trade deadline Maxie!

Sometimes beating up on a bad team can get a team on a roll that continues on after the garbage fore team leaves town. Hope that holds true!

[stringer bell]

Maybe this club is finally rolling. I'll withhold judgment until after the Orioles series.

[William K Johnson]

Enough with the Miranda experiment at third.   Castro/Farmer there until Lewis returns.

[D.C Twins]

Great to see the hitting!

I hate to be 'that guy,' but we really should see this sustained against a team other than K.C before we get too excited :)

[mikelink45]

Nice win, good holiday - but let's hold off the excitement - this is KC  and we are 35 - 42 against the rest of the league.  We cannot judge the team versus KC/Oakland...

[stringer bell]

Mr. Maeda is doing quite well in his return from the IL. The rotation has been so good. Maybe the offense will carry their weight in the second half. 

[jkcarew]

32 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Maybe this club is finally rolling. I'll withhold judgment until after the Orioles series.

Fwiw…Orioles now 6-10 in their last 16. Run differential down to +13. Then come the A’s.

The schedule is soft all July. Perfect situation for the FO to misjudge what this team is heading to the trade deadline.

[hitterscount]

Nice game, the Correa to lead off with Solano batting second is working…let’s leave that sequence alone. Just keep winning series…. I know it’s KC, but give credit where credit is due. 

[jorgenswest]

That is two series wins in a row. They haven’t made it to three yet. It would be great to go into the break by getting that third in a row against the Orioles.

[joefish]

The Orioles won't be coming in hot. The Yanks are taking it to them.

[Sean.h]

3 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Fwiw…Orioles now 6-10 in their last 16. Run differential down to +13. Then come the A’s.

The schedule is soft all July. Perfect situation for the FO to misjudge what this team is heading to the trade deadline.

I view it differently. The twins managed a .500 record while it superstars played like replacement players. How good can the team be if the superstars start playing?? 

[pierre75275]

Jorge Lopez thew only 8 pitches while giving up 2 hits and getting 3 outs? Is that right? Don't see that very often.

I feel a little sorry for Buxton. He has been absolutely tattooing the ball and continues to have opposing players make highlight reel plays on him.

I like to see the offense score runs, not only via the HR. Lately, it appears that is happening. The more it does, the more I will believe good things are coming.

[jorgenswest]

3 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Fwiw…Orioles now 6-10 in their last 16. Run differential down to +13. Then come the A’s.

The schedule is soft all July. Perfect situation for the FO to misjudge what this team is heading to the trade deadline.

They have had other opportunities and didn’t come through. They take the Blue Jay and Brewer series and then fall to a scuffling Tiger team that was done like 1-12 in June. They win a series against the Yankees and Royals and lose to an 8-21 White Sox team.

They have an opportunity to show consistency that they have yet to show this year. I would judge that as a step forward.

 

[Althebum82]

Love to see all of the positive recognition (with caveats, as always) for the highlights of this game.  It certainly makes for a refreshing post-game read.

Miranda's only mildly saving grace today was starting a double play, but his error lead to an unearned run and he seems to be flummoxed by average to below average major league pitchers.

He needs to go back (assuming an option remains) and figure it out while Castro is limited to the infield with Walner's return so richly earned.

[SwainZag]

So nice to see the vets starting to heat up.   Maeda and Kepler showing why you don't DFA veterans in April-May, much to the dislike of many posters around here.  Kep has to be one of the best hitters in baseball the last two weeks.   I love the passion Kenta shows out of the mound too.

Buck looks like he is seeing the ball so much better.   He looked absolutely lost at the plate for a while... so nice to see him back. 

 

[Blyleven2011]

Yes I'm excited we won and that we are 1 game over the pathetic 500 mark  ....

Maeda went 7 innings and 9 strikeouts  ,,, that's a good game  , but it's also the Kansas city royals ...

Yes we got hits and homers  but again it's the Kansas city  royals  and greinke at the end of his career  ...

We are supposed to beat these teams , and we do beat the Kansas city royals but we can't beat the rest of the sub 500 teams out there ...

Sweep Kansas city tomorrow and win the series against Baltimore and then maybe we can relax some , but consistency is what we need  ...

Sure would like for the twins  player's to go get a killer instinct and playball hard ...

I want a 10 game winning streak or more , even several winning streaks would be nice ...

 

[VivaBomboRivera!]

So far, the "season begins today" promise is being kept.  Keep hope alive!

A recommendation and a question:

• Kenta Maeda is a brightly burning evening star right now - catch him before he sets
• Who put a quarter in Max Kepler, and what took them so damned long? (OK, that's two questions)

[stringer bell]

5 minutes ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

So far, the "season begins today" promise is being kept.  Keep hope alive!

A recommendation and a question:

• Kenta Maeda is a brightly burning evening star right now - catch him before he sets
• Who put a quarter in Max Kepler, and what took them so damned long? (OK, that's two questions)

Another comparatively low K day. Better hitting w/ RISP, two strikes and going the other way. Correa has gotten more hits to right in five days than he had in two months. Buxton has hit a lot of balls hard, today a medium grounder found a hole and he beat out a slow roller. 

[UK Twin]

I really hope we have the pre TJ surgery version of Maeda back because he will be a real asset in the 2nd half of the season. He looked really sharp and his fastball reached 92mph - very encouraging. 

Great to see Lopez back with the team and in a good place. Very rusty when he came in but that was to be expected. Nice management from Rocco to get him in the game at the end. 

Buck is really hitting the cover off the ball - no K's today and his out nearly took the 3B's hand off. 

Oh, and congrats to C4 on 1000 hits. 

[UK Twin]

I know the Twins have struggled to score runs but I'm actually quite happy with our 44-43 record. The May and June schedules were brutal. We've held our own against most of the better teams - and even when we got swept against the Braves and Rays we had opportunities to win. 

July looks a lot more friendly with 2 series v KC, and we've got the A's after the All Star break. And the Mariners and White Sox are inconsistent so we could have a really strong month.

[William K Johnson]

Any thoughts on bringing Nelson Cruz in as a hitting coach?

[insagt1]

Kepler has always been a very streaky hitter. Right now for the last 15 games, he has been one of our best hitters. Wish he could maintain most of that. Buxton is hitting the ball hard. He even stole a base. Sure hope he can keep this up.

OTOH, Miranda is not squaring up the ball. Hasn;t had a hit since his return, but his outs have been weakly hit balls, which was his problem earlier in the season. Wonder how long his leash is? There are other options in St. Paul.

[terrydactyls]

14 hours ago, William K Johnson said:

Enough with the Miranda experiment at third.   Castro/Farmer there until Lewis returns.

Miranda made a couple of very nice plays yesterday.  But until he starts hitting, I agree with you about Castro/Farmer.  There several players in St. Paul who deserve a look.

[terrydactyls]

I hope Maeda and Kepler keep going to the end of July.  Their trade value will be quite high.

[Whitey333]

I agree with several other people that we need to keep in mind that this us the Kansas City Royals we are getting fat on.  The Kansas City Royals that are firmly entrenched in last place.  The Kansas City Royals that are 35- 40 games under 500.  They are doing a great job of beating up on Royals but not much else against everyone else.  They do have a much softer schedule the rest of July to get a firm hold of first place.  I love the Twins and am glad they beat up the Royals.  But we need to show some consistency and win series.  If you are 35-42 against non Royals teams the only consistency you have shown is you can't win regularly.

[wabene]

There is another excellent, wide ranging game recap by Dan Hayes behind the paywall at The Athletic.

https://theathletic.com/4666653/2023/07/04/twins-max-kepler-royals-zack-greinke/

In it the Twins talk about changing their IL routine and how they will have players go on rehab stints at St Paul to get dialed in enough to actually help the big club upon return. Ya think? 

This FO seems to miss the simple things and react very slowly. 

[Vanimal46]

It was a fun game to see live. Excellent tune up game for Maeda. The Royals only had maybe 4 hard hit balls all game. 

Buxton sure looked healthy yesterday. Good to see him beat out a slow roller to SS, and get a stolen base. 

[Squirrel]

10 hours ago, Althebum82 said:

(assuming an option remains)

He’s only been sent down once this year so he can be sent down 4 more times … I assume this is what you mean. Option years are different. You only use one option a year, but can be sent down up to 5 times within that year.