KANSAS CITY, MO. – This Kenta Maeda looked familiar, but the Minnesota Twins hadn't seen him in awhile.
The Kenta Maeda who allowed only one run during six weeks of spring training, the righthander who finished runner-up in Cy Young voting last season — that Kenta Maeda mowed down the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, salvaging the finale of a terrible road trip with a 6-2 victory at Kauffman Stadium.
Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Alex Kirilloff all homered for the Twins, Luis Arraez collected three hits and scored three runs, and Jorge Alcala and Trevor Rogers and each contributed a scoreless inning of relief before a two-run, ninth-inning K.C. rally against Hansel Robles.
But it was Maeda, like many of his teammates scuffling along through a bitterly disappointing season, who made the biggest turnaround on Sunday, overpowering the Royals with sinking fastballs and sharply breaking sliders.
In his first career start in Kansas City, Maeda recorded 18 swings and misses during his six-inning performance, allowed only two harmless second-inning singles, and retired the final 13 hitters he faced. He walked only one batter, the first one he faced, struck out 10, his first foray into double digits since last August, and peeled more than half a run from his ERA, which now stands at 5.03.
The victory ended the Twins' five-game losing streak, and sent the Twins home for a weeklong homestand against Chicago and Detroit leading up to the All-Star break.
Cruz selected as Twins’ lone All-Star
Nelson Cruz has been to six All-Star Games already, so he's experienced just about everything at baseball's midseason party. The parades, the Home Run Derby, all the interactions with the game's biggest stars — he even took a selfie with umpire Joe West during an at-bat in Miami in 2017.
So is there anything different to do next week in Denver?
"Get a hit," Cruz said.
Ah, good point. Cruz, chosen as the Twins' lone representative for the July 13 game at Coors Field, is 0-for-7 in his previous All-Star appearances, though he did draw walks off Aroldis Chapman in 2013 and Jeremy Jeffress in 2018.
But that .000 batting average doesn't diminish the experience for Cruz, or the respect he feels by being selected. Just five months ago, he was finding it hard to generate much interest on the free-agent market for a designated hitter in his 40s; now, he's being honored as one of the best hitters in the game.
"It's a reward, you know?" said Cruz, whose .952 OPS ranks eighth in the major leagues, and who ranks 46th on MLB's all-time home run list. "It means you did good, you do something positive in the first half and you did work."
Cruz will represent his fourth team in the game, having gone as a Ranger in 2009 (though he didn't get into the game) and 2013, as an Oriole in 2014, and as a Mariner in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Only Moises Alou and Gary Sheffield, All-Stars for five different teams, have represented more.
The Twins' last-place standing likely limited them to one player in Denver, and Cruz said he felt bad for Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios and Taylor Rogers, who also merited consideration. But he enjoyed manager Rocco Baldelli's clubhouse speech when he announced Cruz's selection, and he's excited to be in that exclusive company again.
"They're all exciting. The first one [in St. Louis] was the one that stuck the most. I tried to soak it in," said Cruz, whose two children enjoy the hoopla even more. "Being around great players like [Derek] Jeter and Mariano [Rivera]. I remember Joe [Mauer] was there, too. I just took it in. Your first one, you don't know if you're going to be back."
MLB invited Cruz to take part in Monday's Home Run Derby, too, but he declined. He took part in 2009 and made it to the final round before losing 6-5 to Prince Fielder.
"It's a great experience, great fans, great for the game. Great for guys who haven't done that," Cruz emphasized. "You're swinging for the fence every single pitch. That can mess up your swing for two, three days, and you don't want that."
Instead, he'll be a guy that young players look forward to talking to, rather than a young guy hoping to meet players he looked up to as he rose through the ranks.
"I hadn't looked at it that way, but that's a great point. I'll [share] my experience and other things I've been able to do to stay in the game," Cruz said. "I guess
I'm going to be the old guy."
