KANSAS CITY. Mo. _ Royals pitcher Heath Fillmyer walked off a mound in Minnesota last week after recording just seven outs. His frustration apparent, manager Ned Yost eventually pulled him aside with a reminder.
"You're gonna get your chance for revenge in only (six) days," Yost said. "You better get on the video; you better watch and see what adjustments you need to make, because you're facing the same team."
A second chance Thursday produced a considerably better outing _ the longest of his career, in fact.
Fillmyer pitched into the eighth inning, lifting the Royals to a 6-4 victory in the opening game of a four-day set with the Twins at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals (50-96) did not have a hit in the first five innings, but they pieced together three straight loud ones as part of a five-run sixth, including back-to-back home runs from catcher Salvador Perez and outfielder Jorge Bonifacio.
In the deepest start of his rookie year, Fillmyer allowed four runs, though two of them crossed the plate after he had departed with one out in the eighth. His final line: 71/3 innings, five hits, four runs.
The Twins put the tying run on second base in the eighth, gathering consecutive hits against lefty Brian Flynn before Brandon Maurer and Jerry Vasto closed the door on the threat and preserved a 5-4 lead.
The Twins, who have recently adopted the "opener" approach to their pitching staff, got five hitless innings from their first two arms. The Royals jumped all over the third. After reliever Gabriel Moya started with two hitless innings, Stephen Gonsalves threw three more. But as is the concept with the new trend of the "opener," as it's dubbed, the Twins kept cycling through options in their bullpen.
Eventually, it bit them. Hunter Dozier led off the sixth with a double. Perez followed with a homer, a ball he hit 107.7 miles per hour, according to Statcast. It was his 25th homer of the season, the second straight season he's reached that milestone. Bonifacio mimicked the blast, the fifth time this season the Royals have gone back-to-back.
The inning wasn't done. Four more base runners. Two more runs. The Royals brought 10 hitters to the plate. Four of them scored. They offered Fillmyer a 5-2 lead after its conclusion, squashing the Twins' strategy, a trendy procedure across baseball first implemented this year by Tampa.
Moya had opened the game with two hitless innings, then was yanked in favor of Gonsalves, who threw three more hitless innings, though they weren't scoreless frames.
The Royals scored a run before they recorded a hit. Adalberto Mondesi ripped a grounder to shortstop Jorge Polanco, who booted the ball into center field. Whit Merrifield scored from first base. The Royals trailed 2-1 while fighting a no-hitter, and they wasted an opportunity one inning earlier, leaving runners at second and third after they'd reached with nobody out.
Fillmyer allowed six runs against Minnesota six days ago. He was pulled before the end of the third. But he was beaten only once Thursday, Jake Cave's two-run homer in the second inning. That was enough for the lead for three innings.
