Royals ride 5-run 1st frame vs. Ryan to win over Twins

KANSAS CITY -- Twins starter Joe Ryan has not been kind to the Royals in his career, entering Saturday night with a career 1.34 ERA against Kansas City in 10 starts, with just nine runs allowed in 60 1/3 innings. He had eight wins in those 10 starts and zero losses.

That run of dominance ended Saturday.

Kansas City rode a five-run first inning off Ryan to an 11-2 win over Minnesota on Saturday at Kauffman Stadium, taking the series and keeping pace in what is turning out to be a wild American League Wild Card race.

The Royals (73-69) remain one game behind the Mariners (74-68) for the final AL Wild Card spot after both teams won Saturday. The Rangers (73-70) lost on Saturday, so Kansas City is now the first team out of the playoff mix, a half-game ahead of Texas.

Playing without Bobby Witt Jr. as he deals with low back spasms, the Royals did not let Witt’s absence -- as great as it is -- affect them on the field. They led Saturday’s game, 4-0, four batters into the bottom of the first inning.

Mike Yastrzemski and Maikel Garcia drew back-to-back walks. Vinnie Pasquantino crushed an RBI double to the right-field wall. Salvador Perez followed with a three-run home run, his 25th of the year and No. 298 in his career.

“We haven’t had one of those in a while, where the offense just clicked like that,” Pasquantino said.

Saturday was Ryan’s third start against the Royals in 2025; in the two previous starts, the Royals had hit just 6-for-40 (.150). Pasquantino had two previous hits off Ryan in 16 previous career at-bats, so the question about how the first-inning double felt wasn’t finished before Pasquantino was answering it.

“Really good. Really good,” Pasquantino said. “He’s just had a lot of success off us. So any time you can put runs on a guy like that is huge.

“... You got a game plan against a guy, and I mean, one through nine, we did a phenomenal job. Put pressure on him, made him throw strikes, forced him to walk some guys. I mean, about as good as it gets.”

As Pasquantino ran into the dugout after Perez’s home run, he stopped next to Nick Loftin and asked if Loftin had been watching the previous at-bats.

“I said, ‘Yeah, guys were taking on the edges and getting him in the zone,’” Loftin said. “That kind of gave me the reassurance that I needed, reiterate the plan that we had.”

Loftin laid off a first-pitch sinker for a ball and then drove the next one -- in the zone -- to center field for an RBI double.

With Ryan making it just two innings, the Twins pieced together what became a bullpen game pretty quickly. The Royals did not care who was pitching; they kept scoring runs, with three in the third inning, another in the fourth and two more in the sixth. Pasquantino was on base three times with a double, a walk and a single. Loftin was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs. Jac Caglianone added two hits.

Royals No. 2 prospect Carter Jensen recorded his first career hit and RBI, a two-out double that he smoked to right field in the fourth inning off former Royal Thomas Hatch. By the eighth inning, Jensen took over for Perez behind the plate for his catching debut as the Royals got their everyday starters out of a blowout game.

“I caught Hatch in Triple-A, so I know him and his stuff,” Jensen said. “I kind of had an idea of how he wanted to pitch me, especially after the first at-bat.”

The offensive outburst allowed Royals starter Stephen Kolek to pitch free and easy in his second start with Kansas City since joining the organization at the Trade Deadline. The righty threw seven strong innings, allowing two runs on six hits with four strikeouts and one walk. Three of those strikeouts came in the seventh after back-to-back singles from the Twins to begin the inning.

“I don’t do that very often,” said Kolek, who relies on weak contact and quick outs. “That was nice to get out of a jam like that and to finish off strong.”

Kolek is in the rotation for the foreseeable future with Seth Lugo (low back strain) on the 15-day injured list, and Kolek has done nothing but impress in his two starts, pitching to a 2.08 ERA. And pitching deep into the game, with the Royals’ bullpen overworked lately, definitely doesn’t go unnoticed.

“That was phenomenal,” Pasquantino said.