By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals started their first winning streak of the season against an American League Central foe, defeating the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on Monday evening at Kauffman Stadium.
Kansas City took the lead in the bottom of the first inning. Jonathan India led off the frame with a double, and after Bobby Witt Jr flew out to right field, Vinnie Pasquantino hit his second double of the season to left field driving in India.
The Twins tied the game up in the second inning, Willi Castro doubling to score Ty France, but Kansas City took the lead back for good in the bottom half of the inning. MJ Melendez led the bottom of the second off with his first double of the year, followed by a single from Maikel Garcia, before Melendez scored on a single from Kyle Isbel. Garcia later came around to score on a force out, where Isbel was thrown out at second, and Witt Jr safely reached first.
With two outs in the sixth inning, Isbel hit a home run into the right field bullpen. In the ninth inning, the Twins scored the final run of the game, Harrison Bader driving in France with an RBI single.
Michael Lorenzen rebounded from a rough start to open his season, where he gave up four runs, giving up just one run in this game on five hits across six innings, striking out three. Carlos Estévez notched his third save of the season, giving up one run on one hit, walking one and also striking out one.
Isbel led the way hitting on the day for Kansas City, going 3-4 at the plate with two RBI's and his solo home run.
Kansas City and Minnesota are back in action tomorrow at Kauffman Stadium. Cole Ragans will continue looking for his first win of the season, starting for the Royals, against Pablo López for the Twins. First pitch is at 6:40pm, pregame coverage begins at 6pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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