Twins 3, Royals 2: Royce Lewis Walks It Off With Two Outs

Two outs, two runners, one ball off the wall

July 28, 2026 – Minneapolis – Ryan Kreidler swung through strike three, and Kansas City stood one out from a win.

Victor Caratini had opened the ninth with a single. Brooks Lee walked with one out. Alex Lange then struck out Kreidler, bringing Royce Lewis to the plate with the Minnesota Twins trailing 2-1.

Lewis had entered as a pinch hitter in the seventh. He fell behind Lange with a swing through the first pitch, took a ball, then caught a 1-1 cutter. The drive carried to the top of the right-center-field wall. Caratini scored. Lee followed him. Lewis reached third, and Target Field had a 3-2 walk-off win over the Kansas City Royals.

It was Lewis’ second career walk-off hit. It also took Minnesota back to .500 at 54-54 after a game Kansas City had spent most of the night squeezing shut.

Five double plays kept the Twins waiting

Minnesota had 10 hits, but the Royals turned five double plays, the most by a major league team in a game this season. That was how the Twins lineup arrived in the ninth with one run.

Kody Clemens supplied the first opening. He doubled in the fourth and scored on Josh Bell’s single. Seth Lugo limited the damage there and almost everywhere else. The Kansas City right-hander allowed one run across six innings and left in line for the win.

The Royals answered in the sixth with the sort of inning that punishes a moment of inattention. Josh Rojas stole home on the front end of a double steal to tie the game. Salvador Perez followed with an RBI single, and Kansas City moved ahead 2-1.

That lead lasted until Lewis found the wall.

Lange (1-6) recorded two outs in the ninth but couldn’t get the third. The blown save was his third of the season. The gap between a clean finish and a loss came down to one cutter that stayed in the park by inches.

Bradley gave Minnesota a chance

Taj Bradley didn’t get the decision, but the Twins don’t reach the ninth within one run without him.

Bradley allowed two runs and three hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out 10, his fourth double-digit strikeout game of the season. Kansas City’s two-run sixth was the only inning that broke through.

Lugo matched him in a different way. He didn’t miss as many bats, but he kept turning Minnesota’s baserunners into empty innings. One run in six frames should have been enough once the Royals handed the game to their bullpen.

The injury news made the middle innings feel heavier. Byron Buxton left in the fifth with soreness in his right hip, the same joint that kept him out of the All-Star Game earlier this month. Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino later exited with a sore right hand. Both clubs left the game with more to check than the box score.

AthX Engine saw the pitching first

AthX Engine put Bradley at 20 pitching fantasy points, tied for seventh on Tuesday’s pitching board. Minnesota finished with seven team FP because the first eight innings produced only one run.

Lewis changed the result with one swing, but daily fantasy points and share prices remain separate measures. Fantasy points track the performance on the field. Dynamic pricing also reflects how the AthX market responds.

The modest team total doesn’t make the finish less important. Minnesota has won three straight and five of six. The Twins now sit two games behind the first-place White Sox in the AL Central.

Minnesota found the third out Kansas City could not

The Royals did nearly everything required to win a low-scoring road game. Lugo controlled six innings. The defense erased runners all night. Rojas created a run with his legs. Perez brought home another.

Then Lewis got one pitch with the tying and winning runs aboard.

The Twins didn’t need a homer. They needed the ball to stay away from a glove. It struck the wall, kicked back into the outfield, and gave both runners time to score.

Minnesota gets Kansas City again Wednesday, with Joe Ryan scheduled against Randy Dobnak. The larger concern is Buxton’s hip. The immediate result is simpler: the Twins are back at .500, and a game that looked lost with two outs in the ninth belongs to them.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule, ESPN box score, CBS Sports/AP recap, AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*