Ty France’s walk-off home run sends Twins to victory over Royals

In a battle between two of Major League Baseball s top pitching staffs it s no surprise that runs were hard to come by on Friday night After each striking early the Twins and Royals pitching staffs put up zeros throughout the middle and late innings of the match leading them into the ninth inning deadlocked It took just one swing to undo that Ty France stepped to the plate in the ninth inning and unleashed on a first-pitch slider from Royals reliever Lucas Erceg sending the ball deep into the night and making - walk-off winners of the Twins in the series opener against Kansas City at Target Field I have a handful of at-bats off him knew he was going to try to get in the zone early and then expand late so just saw the first pitch up and went France revealed in his on-field interview It was France s second walk-off hit as a Twin this season and the first walk-off home run that the veteran has hit in seven-year career The Twins - had managed just five hits in the meeting before that two from shortstop Carlos Correa in his return from the seven-day concussion injured list Correa who beat out an infield single right before France s at-bat and scored the game-winning run hammered a Noah Cameron pitch feet out to center field in the second inning tying the match at the time It was his first at-bat since colliding with teammate Byron Buxton in Baltimore He stated he experienced dizziness headaches and brain fog in the days after suffering the concussion but he didn t miss a beat in his return collecting two hits looking as steady as ever at short and hitting another long flyball out to deep right field in his second at-bat of the day I think it was a perfect way to get back Correa noted Do a little bit of everything get my feet wet once again and go from there Besides Correa the Twins were unable to do much against Cameron the Royals rookie starter who now has a earned-run average through his first career starts While the Twins didn t have that a large number of opportunities the Royals - had a chance in almost every inning And yet Twins pitchers made sure those opportunities didn t amount to anything Though Pablo L pez did not throw a - - inning in his outing he was able to pitch around traffic for the the majority part locking things down after giving up a run in the first inning L pez allowed seven hits in his outing but each time he did he maneuvered himself out of it It could have been a little crisper a little more dominant but you have to take it L pez reported You have to take what the contest gives you It gave me good defense behind me It gave me catcher Ryan Jeffers calling good pitches Then it gave us a walk-off win in the ninth inning L pez departed with two outs in the sixth inning in favor of Brock Stewart who got Kyle Isbel to pop up for the final out of the inning In the seventh Louie Varland allowed a four-pitch walk to begin his outing but a key double play turned by Correa behind him helped him out of the situation An inning later after Maikel Garcia reached on a leadoff single Griffin Jax picked him off before recording the next two outs of the inning And then Cole Sands followed throwing the first perfect inning of the night for the Twins Ty coming through there it just makes the meeting and in a lot of strategies it allows you to appreciate the pitching that we got even more in the modern day manager Rocco Baldelli commented When you get a swing like that to win the tournament and you look back at the encounter the reason we re in that position is because we pitched so good Related Articles Carlos Correa returns after a week on concussion injured list Who s on first Three of the newest additions to the Twins roster Trio of Twins position players making progress towards their return Twins Guardians completely play ball splitting two games Twins Guardians washed out again will attempt to play almost two Wednesday