Royals walk-off Twins on Bobby Witt Jr. grand slam
Jorge Polanco's ninth inning heroics kept the Twins alive, but it was all for naught as the Royals beat Minnesota 8-5 with a walk-off grand slam by Bobby Witt Jr. in 10th inning.
Bobby ballgame!#HEYHEYHEYHEY // #WelcomeToTheCity pic.twitter.com/lknf3JV0Up
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) July 29, 2023
Playing for the first time since June 8, Polanco came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning and he ripped a two-run double to tie the game 4-4. Kyle Farmer then gave the Twins a 5-4 lead with a two-out single to score Matt Wallner in the top of the 10th, setting the stage for Witt Jr.'s moment.
Witt Jr. finished the night 4-for-5 with and was a triple shy of the cycle. He smoked a fastball from Jhoan Duran over the left-field wall to win the game, having been given the chance to bat after Duran walked two batters to load the bases.
Kansas City's 28th ranked pitching staff held the Twins to five hits before Byron Buxton and Polanco came up with hits in the ninth. Buxton pinch-hit in his first at-bat after being on paternity leave Monday-Thursday. He ripped a single to start the ninth before Eddy Julien walked and Donovan Solano was hit by a pitch to set the table for Polanco.
𝙋𝙊𝙇𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙊 𝙄𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙇𝙐𝙏𝘾𝙃!!! #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/T83W52nk3Y
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) July 29, 2023
Kansas City took a 1-0 lead on Kyle Isbel's homer off Sonny Gray to start the third inning. Outside of the long ball, Gray retired 16 of the first 18 batters of the game – and he picked off the only other batter who reached – before running into trouble with two outs in the sixth inning.
With two down and nobody on base, Gray allowed a triple, a run-scoring double and then the go-ahead RBI single for a 3-2 Royals lead.
Witt Jr. had four of Kansas City's nine hits, including a two-out, RBI single in the ninth inning to put the Royals on top 4-2. Witt got the hit off Twins right-hander Dylan Floro, who was acquired in a trade between Minnesota and Miami on Wednesday. The run wasn't charged to Floro as he inherited the baserunner put there by Twins lefty Jovani Moran.
Up next: Twins at Royals, Saturday at 6:10 p.m. CT.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.