MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Mike Aviles didn’t feel he was in a funk. Even at 0 for 18, he didn’t consider that long enough to be a slump.
No need to think about that anymore.
Aviles doubled twice and drove in three runs as the Kansas City Royals became the latest team to tag Francisco Liriano, roughing up the Minnesota Twins 10-5 on Wednesday.
Alex Gordon added two hits and drove in two runs. The Royals scored six times in the fourth inning to break open the game.
“Eighteen at-bats over the course of 500, 600 at-bats really is just a little down period,” Aviles said. “It wasn’t that big of a deal. I was fine, still am.”
Kyle Davies (1-1) won despite allowing five runs and 10 hits in five innings. Three relievers combined on four scoreless innings, giving up just two hits. Jeremy Jeffress finished with two innings for his first major league save.
“It was a day of bunches,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. “We bunched together a bunch of hits and then they came back and bunched together a bunch of hits. Again, our bullpen is spectacular and did the job.”
Liriano (0-3) gave up six straight hits during the Royals’ big inning. He began the game with a 7.71 ERA after Toronto and the Yankees knocked him around in his first two starts.
Denard Span was 4 for 4 and scored twice for the Twins, who started the day as the lowest-scoring team in the majors.
“I thought the last couple of days the ball was coming off our bats pretty good,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We had a lot better at-bats and made some things happen. We got back into the game today by swinging the bats and having some good at-bats.”
Kansas City is showing no such problem with its bats.
The Royals started the day with the AL’s second-best batting average and every starter except Matt Treanor finished with a hit.
“We’ve gotten on base a lot and if we don’t get it here, we’ll get it there,” Kansas City’s Billy Butler said. “We’re just doing a good job of putting pressure on teams. We have to continue to do that, force the issue and keep taking the extra base.”
Liriano went 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA last year and ranked fifth in the AL with 201 strikeouts. The left-hander is still trying to re-establish his dominance after elbow surgery four years ago.
Liriano held the Royals hitless through the first three innings. The second time through the order, however, proved a tougher task. That’s been his pattern this year — in their first plate appearance against Liriano, hitters are batting just .083.
Overall, Liriano gave up seven runs and eight hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked one.
Gardenhire has been telling Liriano to relax, trust his movement and pitch to contact. In the first three innings, Liriano holds a 2.00 ERA; from the fourth inning on, his ERA jumps to 18.56 and hitters are hitting .448 off him.
“I threw more fastballs than I’m used to today,” Liriano said. “I just wanted them to put the ball in play and not strike them out.”
Kansas City opened the fourth with five straight singles before a two-run double by Aviles. Alcides Escobar later singled and Chris Getz had an RBI single.
Aviles added an RBI double in the sixth after Minnesota struck for four runs in the fifth against Davies. Gordon hit a two-run double as part of a three-run ninth.
The Twins scored in the first inning for the first time this season, but missed a prime opportunity for more.
Span opened with a single, the first leadoff hit for Minnesota this season, and later scored. The Twins had runners at first and third with no outs, but a pair of popouts and a strikeout ended the threat for Davies.