Minnesota Twins vs Kansas City Royals Box Score on Aug 09, 2020

Rookie Brady Singer and three Kansas City relievers combined to beat the visiting Minnesota Twins 4-2 on Sunday afternoon as the Royals swept the three-game series and won their fourth straight game.

Last season, the Royals failed to win any of their six series against the Twins.

The Kansas City bullpen pitched 13 1/3 innings of relief in the series, allowing just two runs. Scott Barlow picked up his first save on Sunday.

Singer (1-1) earned his first career victory in his Kauffman Stadium debut after three starts on the road. He allowed two runs on five hits, with two walks and four strikeouts. He's pitched exactly five innings in each of his four starts.

Jose Berrios (1-2) took the loss for Minnesota. He allowed four runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out four.

Hunter Dozier made his 2020 debut after testing positive for COVID-19 prior to the Royals' final exhibition game. He started at first base and went 1-for-4 with two RBIs.

The Royals scored two runs in the first. Whit Merrifield led off with a sharp single. A baserunning error kept him from scoring when Jorge Soler hit one off the top of the wall in left. Merrifield thought left fielder Eddie Rosario might catch it, so he went back to tag. With men on first and second, Salvador Perez advanced both runners when he flied out to deep left. Dozier then beat the shift with a two-run single to right.

Singer lost a little command in the third after taking a Byron Buxton line drive off his pitching hand. He tried to pick off Buxton but threw it into right field. He then walked Alex Avila and gave up an RBI double to Max Kepler. Avila later scored on a groundout by Jorge Polanco to knot the game at 2-2.

The Royals regained the lead in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly by Perez. They added an insurance run in the sixth on a lead-off home run by Maikel Franco, his fourth of the season.

--Field Level Media