MINNEAPOLIS _ Miguel Sano punished a pitch, Robbie Grossman took one, and Ervin Santana's serene countenance barely registered any duress. All three did the usual, in other words, and the result was something completely unusual for the Twins: A victory on Opening Day.
Grossman took four pitches for a bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning Monday at Target Field, forcing in the go-ahead run of the Twins' 7-1 win over the Royals at Target Field and giving the Twins a 1-0 record for the first time since 2008.
Grossman wasn't the only aggressively passive hero in Minnesota's six-run seventh inning, though. Joe Mauer and Sano both recorded RBIs by taking walks, too. Then Jason Castro singled home a pair of runs and Jorge Polanco drove in another with a hit. In all, the Twins scored six runs off the Royals bullpen in the seventh inning, or more than they had scored in an entire Opening Day game in a decade.
It was also the first time since 2011 that the Twins won their first game at Target Field, breaking a five-game skid.
The odd rally decided what up to then had been a pitcher's duel between Royals left-hander Danny Duffy and Santana, the Twins' ace right-hander. Both pitchers dominated the opposing lineup, and each made only one mistake: A fourth-inning pitch that landed in the seats.
Santana's misfire was a 94-mph fastball that Mike Moustakas clubbed into the right-field seats, giving the Royals a 1-0 lead. But Sano got the run right back in the bottom of the inning, drilling a Duffy fastball into the second deck in left field, the Twins' first Opening Day home run since Josh Willingham in 2012.
Santana allowed only two hits in seven innings, the other a harmless single by Salvador Perez that was quickly erased by a double play. Santana also walked Lorenzo Cain twice, and in an oddity, didn't strike out a batter until the seventh inning _ when he whiffed the final three batters he faced, the latter two with Cain standing on second as the tie-breaking run.
Duffy gave up only three hits over his six-inning assignment, striking out eight, but his bullpen couldn't continue that run. When left-hander Matt Strahm relieved Duffy to start the seventh, Polanco quickly singled. Max Kepler then laid down a bunt and beat Strahm's throw to first base, though it took a successful replay challenge by Paul Molitor to establish that. Eddie Rosario successful sacrificed both runners over, and Brian Dozier was waved to first base by Royals manager Ned Yost, the season's first utilization of the no-pitch-necessary intentional walk rule.
But Grossman walked on four pitches, and the Twins' big inning was on. Byron Buxton struck out, but Travis Wood walked Mauer and Sano to add to Minnesota's lead, and Castro and Polanco put the game out of reach. Matt Belisle and Brandon Kintzler each pitched a scoreless inning to move the Twins into first place in the AL Central for the first time since June 8, 2015.
