Twins' ninth-inning rally falls short in 6-5 loss to Royals

La Velle E. Neal III, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jun 7, 2026

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — On Sunday, the Minnesota Twins played a game for the 17th consecutive day. And they played most of the game like they were looking ahead to Monday’s day off.

The Kansas City Royals trailed early but turned the tables with four runs in the fifth inning and held off a late rally to down the Twins 6-5 at Target Field. The Twins dropped three of four games in the series and have lost nine of their past 12 overall.

Whether the Twins are worn down from the run of games or whether they are worn out from injuries to their rotation and a skidding bullpen, Sunday’s game looked like a clunker until their just-short comeback attempt in the ninth inning.

A leadoff walk by Orlando Arcia, single by Kody Clemens and long three-run homer to right by Josh Bell awakened the announced crowd of 19,876 as the Twins pulled within 6-4.

Pinch hitter Victor Caratini, down to the final strike of the game, rolled an RBI single through the infield to score Trevor Larnach and make it 6-5, putting the tying run on base.

Pinch hitter Tristan Gray followed with another single to advance Caratini to second. But then Brooks Lee, down to his final strike ... flew out to left to end the game.

So have an off-day, Twins.

“What I take from it, I’m trying to take the positive from it first,” manager Derek Shelton said after the loss. “We played 17 games in a row, we’re down 6-1 in the ninth and we bring the winning run to the plate twice. So, they continued to battle, they continued to grind. We just had, unfortunately, one bad inning, that got away from us on the pitching side.”

Before the game, there was some hope that Byron Buxton, who has missed two games with a shoulder injury caused when he brushed against the wall while catching a deep fly in center field Friday, would be able available as the designed hitter Sunday. That didn’t come to pass, and the Twins hope he can return to the lineup Tuesday night when they open brief three-game road trip at Detroit.

The game flipped in the fifth inning, moments following the departure of left-hander Connor Prielipp (2-4) with one out and Carter Jensen on first base. Fellow rookie pitcher Andrew Morris entered and gave up a single to center, moving Jensen to second. Maikel Garcia scored Thomas with a two-out single to right to give Kansas City a 2-1 lead.

Then Morris, who has been sturdy for the Twins at times since making his major league debut April 12, tried to fire a 97.3-mph heater past Starling Marte. The veteran blasted the pitch over the center-field wall for a three-run homer and a 5-1 Kansas City lead. Jensen added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to make it 6-1.

Twins hitters managed only three hits over six innings against Royals left-hander Noah Cameron (3-4), who struck out seven and gave up an unearned run. The funk he put the Twins offense in continued into the final innings, as Royals pitchers retired 13 consecutive Twins hitters the fourth through the eighth innings.

Arcia’s walk leading off the ninth was the Twins’ first of the game, and they went 15 consecutive plate appearances without a hit until Clemens’ ninth-inning single off Beck Way. Bell followed with his home run for the Twins’ first extra-base hit of the game.

“We just continue to have good at-bats. I mean, that’s a situation that you can again ... I don’t want to say give away at-bats, but it was a situation where our guys continue to go, Josh hits the homer, and sometimes when you have that situation, the homer kills the rally,” Shelton said. “But no, we didn’t. We continued to go, we had pinch hits by guys who did a good job. Overall, proud of the group because we continue to grind. We just have to improve some things in the middle of the game.”

The Twins opened the scoring in the second inning when Clemens led off with a single to right. With one out, he stole second on a 2-1 pitch, advanced to third when normally surehanded shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. booted Royce Lewis’ grounder and scored when Luke Keaschall beat out an infield hit to second. It wasn’t exactly stringing together solid hits, but it was nevertheless effective.

Prielipp was overpowering early, striking out the side in the third. He had retired five of six Royals hitters on strikeouts when, with two outs and full count in the fourth, he gave up a double to Vinnie Pasquantino. Nick Loftin doubled on the next pitch, scoring Pasquantino with the tying run.

Witt, fourth in AL MVP voting last year, left the game in the seventh inning because of right knee soreness.

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