The Minnesota Twins were embarrassed once again on Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium, as the Kansas City Royals completed a three-game sweep of the Twins with a 10-3 victory.
The Royals jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Jeff Francoeur deposited a Carl Pavano offering over the left field wall for a solo home run, and extended that lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Alexi Casilla. . .again. . .made an error on a play that should have ended the inning. Minnesota got one back in the top of the fifth on a triple by Casilla that scored Drew Butera.
The Royals then really got to Pavano, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 5-1. Justin Morneau answered in the top of the sixth with a solo home run to right field, his first homer since July 6 of 2010 in Toronto, to make the score 5-2, but the Royals just kept on hitting. They chased Pavano in the bottom of the sixth by putting up two more runs and making the score 7-2.
Pavano was pulled with one out in the sixth, having allowed seven runs (six earned) on 12 hits during that frame. This was his reaction after Ron Gardenhire lifted him for Glen Perkins.
That might be the hardest any Twin has hit anything all season long.
Pavano took the loss in this one to drop his record to 2-3, and raise his ERA to 5.84. Luke Hochevar, who had allowed 12 runs in 12.1 innings in his previous two starts, got the victory by allowing three runs on five hits through 6.1 innings, and evened his record at 3-3.
The Twins are now in firm possession of baseball's worst record at 9-18. They've allowed sixty-four more runs than they've scored this season, which is nearly double the second-worst margin in baseball. . .the Chicago White Sox have baseball's second-worst run differential with a mark of -36. They've lost six straight, and have been outscored in those six games by a combined total of 54-14. When you're allowing nine runs a night, you're not going to win many ball games, and that's even more true when you're a team that's struggling on offense the way Minnesota is.
The Twins have a day off before they hit U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago for a quick two-game set with the White Sox. We'll have all of the coverage of it for you right here at SB Nation Minnesota.