Manager Ned Yost called it “just another day.”
It wasn’t. It was Yost’s 62nd birthday on Friday, but he had to wait until Saturday morning to celebrate the Kansas City Royals’ 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins in 11 innings.
It was the hat trick: three-hour, three-minute rain delay, 12-minute delay for a lights malfunction and extra innings.
“Guys pulled up a truck last night (Thursday) and they probably had too much to drink and they wanted me to go out and have a beer with them after the game,” Yost said. “I said, ‘no guys. I’m sorry.’ A (guy) said, ‘Well, it’s my birthday.’ I said, ‘good, happy birthday, mine is tomorrow.’ And they said really.”
Yost asked them how old he looks?
“They said, ‘You look 50-51,'” Yost said. “I said, OK, good. You guys go have a good time and stay out of trouble.'”
Yost could have had a happier birthday if starter Edinson Volquez maintained a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning with three quick outs, which would have made it an official game. Instead, Volquez retired only one of the five batters he faced, and yielded three runs, three doubles and a single.
The Royals have won six straight, equaling their longest winning streak of the season.
Right-hander Ian Kennedy will start for the Royals on Saturday and the Twins will counter with left-hander Hector Santiago.
Kennedy is 1-0 with a 0.95 ERA in his first three August starts. He has not won since June 26 at Kauffman Stadium.
Santiago, who was acquired Aug. 1 from the Los Angeles Angels for Ricky Nolasco and Alex Meyer, is 0-3 with a 9.42 ERA in his first three Twins starts. Santiago has allowed 16 runs (15 earned) and 21 hits, including four home runs, three walks and a hit batter in 14 1/3 innings.
The Royals beat up Santiago on Saturday at Target Field. He was pulled after four innings, surrendering seven runs and nine hits. With the bullpen worn out after five relievers were utilized in the extra-inning loss, Twins manager Paul Molitor is hoping Santiago can give them several innings.
He said he will talk to pitching coach Neil Allen about who might not be available for Saturday. That would include right-hander Ryan Pressly, who required 45 pitches to get through two innings. Left-hander Taylor Rogers threw 23 pitches in 1 2/3 innings and is probably iffy.
Molitor
“I’ll have to talk to Neil and try to measure who’s available and how much we can get from people,” Molitor said. “There’s going to be some people not available, so, come on, Hector.”
Molitor said they debated on sending Pressly out for another inning.
“I thought a little bit about tomorrow and Sunday, but we had a chance to win a game and if he was OK I was going to let him go out there,” Molitor said. “Sure enough, he had a long inning, some long at-bats, and he got up there past the 40s and I wanted to make sure he was OK.
“We were able to give him a few days rest prior to today, but he wanted that last hitter and he was able to get him out. That was a pick-me-up at the time for him to get through two for us.”