Twins eliminated from wild card with 5-1 loss to Royals

The visiting Kansas City Royals look to get a leg up on home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and end the Minnesota Twins’ bid for the postseason when the American League Central rivals reconvene at Target Field on Saturday afternoon. Perkins continued his struggles, immediately allowing an RBI double to Ben Zobrist to give the Royals the lead.

“Great team win, great environment”, Young said.

Here the Twins were, playing a game that mattered on October. 2, a testament to their resiliency under the rookie manager Molitor this season following four straight years of mostly bad baseball. Kansas City and Toronto both emerged victorious on Friday to remain tied with identical 93-67 records, although the AL East champion-Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker after winning four of the seven meetings this season.

“He was the number-one starter, that was a big task that he tried to fulfil, and I really think he got to a point where it kind of overwhelmed him a little bit”, Yost said. “I mean just trying to do the smart thing”. In the sixth, he walked to the mound preparing to face sluggers Miguel Sano, Trevor Plouffe and Eddie Rosario. The Royals have scored 14 runs in their last three games and four or more runs in five of their last 10 games.

Louis Coleman (1-0), Ryan Madson and Wade Davis wrapped up the win, with Davis notching his 16th save in 17 attempts. With a five-run comeback in the ninth at Texas, the Angels moved two games ahead of the Twins while still chasing the Houston Astros for the final postseason spot. With two days left to make up ground this was as devastating a defeat as they’ve had in 2015.

A similar play involving shortstop Eduardo Escobar cost the Twins a 4-3 loss two Saturdays ago against the Los Angeles Angels. Perkins went after Zobrist with a first-pitch fastball and Zobrist jumped on it and hit a ball all the way to the wall in left-center field, which was deep enough to score the speedy Alcides Escobar from first base.

The Twins finally broke through against Ventura when Torii Hunter hit a two-out single in the fifth. The manager wasn’t about to show his hand on Friday, though.

“Definitely wasn’t myself, but I got through today”, he said.

Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, right, completes the…

Joe Mauer is batting. “Being a game back with three to go, all we wanted was a chance to get into the postseason”. Perez has a jammed thumb, Cain is dealing with a knee bruise and Morales has a tight quad.

Royals: RHP Yordano Ventura (12-8, 4.20 ERA) will start on Saturday. The Twins opened up a 1-0 lead, piecing together a leadoff single with a passed ball and two more singles with just one out.

Twins: LHP Tommy Milone (9-5, 4.04) will take the mound in the middle game of the series, coming off a critical win at Cleveland on Monday following an 11-day break due to weakness around his shoulder.