Diamond, Twins tumble to Royals

Published Jul. 21, 2012 1:01 p.m. ET

foxsports

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Scott Diamond's second time against the Kansas City Royals did not go nearly as well as the first.

Diamond gave up a season-high 10 hits
and four runs in six innings as the Minnesota Twins lost 7-3 to the
Royals on Saturday night

In a June 30 victory over the Royals, Diamond yielded two runs and six hits in eight innings.

"I really don't want to second guess a
lot of the pitches I threw tonight," Diamond said. "I threw the ball
well. The results don't match up. That's the way it goes sometimes.

"The last time I faced them they hit balls right at guys. It can go either way, but, I'm not going to second guess."

The Royals led off the first five
innings with singles. The Twins turned five double plays, including four
in the first five innings.

"It definitely can get a little
frustrating, but it's part of the game," Diamond said. "I was able to
calm myself down and get some double plays. It seemed like every single
leadoff hitter was on base.

"It was frustrating. I felt like I made
some good pitches. Maybe I tried to do too much. I was executing.
Things just didn't go my way."

The Royals finished with 16 hits,
including three each by Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain, who matched his
career high with three RBIs.

"It was a tough night," Twins manager
Ron Gardenhire said. "It honestly reminded me of our Metrodome days with
a lot of chopping hits, a lot of slap hits. They were very aggressive,
did a good job putting the ball in play. I thought Scotty did a good
job. He had a good breaking ball."

Twins center fielder Denard Span left after seven innings when he was not feeling good.

"I kind of felt out of it," Span said.
"I was light-headed, just kind of dizzy and wasn't feeling good for the
majority of the game. I didn't want to do something to hurt us so I came
out. It's probably the worst I've felt all year. Hopefully I'll be fine
tomorrow."

Cain delivered run-producing singles in the first and fifth innings and he had an RBI-double in the seventh.

Gordon started the first inning with a single and scored on Cain's two-out single.

Mike Moustakas opened the second with a
single to center, went to second on Eric Hosmer's single and scored on
Yuniesky Betancourt's two-out single.

Jeff Francoeur and Betancourt doubled
for the first Kansas City run in the eighth. Gordon singled home
Betancourt for other run in the inning.

Aaron Crow worked two spotless innings to log his second save.

The Twins made it 2-all in the fourth.
Ben Revere started with a triple to the right-field corner and scored on
Joe Mauer's groundout. Josh Willingham, who singled, scored the other
run of the inning on Chris Parmelee's fielder's choice.

The Royals took a 4-2 lead in the fifth
when they were aided by an error by Parmelee at first base. Cain
singled Gordon home with the first run of the inning. When Parmelee
failed to handle Moustakas' hard bouncer, Alcides Escobar scored.

The Twins got a run back in the seventh when Jamey Carroll's double scored Parmelee.