Twins muster only 4 hits in 5-0 loss to royals

The Minnesota Twins' offense was silent against the Kansas City Royals' pitching Friday night, losing the first of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium 5-0.

Minnesota had four hits all night as they dropped to the third American League Wild Card spot, now trailing a half-game back of the Royals for the second spot.

The AL Central-leading Guardians play the Dodgers in a late-night game Friday. As of writing, Cleveland holds a four-game lead over the Royals in the division and 4.5 over the Twins.

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The Twins' only true scoring chance came in the top of the fourth inning against Royals southpaw Cole Ragans with two outs. Kyle Farmer singled to center and Austin Martin followed that up with a double to left. Farmer tried to score on the play but was thrown out by a nice relay of left fielder Tommy Pham to Bobby Witt Jr. to catcher Salvador Perez.

The Twins didn't get multiple hits in a single inning again for the rest of the night, other than two singles in the first inning that resulted in nothing.

Twins rookie Zebby Matthews had a better start than the one previous (2 innings pitched, 9 runs allowed) as he threw five innings giving up nine hits, four runs, one walk and struck out four. He gave up a homer in the fifth inning to Hunter Renfroe, who just re-joined the team after completing a rehab assignment this week.

Matthews was saddled with the loss, his third of the season and career.

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The Twins and Royals will do it again Saturday night, as Bailey Ober (12-6, 3.95 ERA) will go up against Alec Marsh (7-8, 4.70 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m.