Whit Merrifield, Bobby Witt Jr. deliver late clutch hits as Royals rally to beat Twins

Bobby Witt Jr.’s two-out, two-strike RBI double in the eighth put the Kansas City Royals ahead for the first time and capped a three-run inning after Whit Merrifield belted a game-tying two-run double.

The one-run lead sent a noticeable portion of Minnesota Twins fans filing to the exit, but the game was far from a foregone conclusion.

In the bottom half of the inning, reliever Scott Barlow showed nerves of steel as he took the ball with no outs and the bases loaded and came out the other side with the Royals still holding a one-run lead.

That eventful eighth inning played a pivotal role in the Royals snapping a six-game losing streak Thursday night with a 3-2 win over the Twins in front of an announced 17,657 in the first game of a four-game series at Target Field.

Twins starting pitcher Devin Smeltzer, a left-hander, held the Royals scoreless on just two hits and one walk through seven innings.

The only hits against Smeltzer were a first-inning single up the middle by Andrew Benintendi and a seventh-inning single by Hunter Dozier that darted past Twins shortstop Carlos Correa and into left field.

“You hope to have that big hit — that’s the thing that’s eluded us more than anything else,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “But (Merrifield) comes through there. … Then Bobby gets into a tough count on a couple of balls that he swings over, and just shortens up, doesn’t try to do too much, just uses the middle of the field and the next thing you know, we’ve got an opportunity to walk away with a win.”

The Royals mounted their rally in the eighth against Twins reliever Tyler Duffey. Emmanuel Rivera’s one-out single to left field got the ball rolling, then Ryan O’Hearn came through with a critical two-out single to put two runners on — the Royals (15-28) put speedster Dairon Blanco in as a pinch runner for O’Hearn.

With two on and two out, Merrifield lined a two-run double into right-center field.

“We’re pretty familiar with Duffey,” Merrifield said. “He’s got a good sinker in. The fastball away kind of cuts. He’s got a good curveball. He threw the sinker in that I was actually kinda looking for on the first pitch. I was pretty proud of that take, and then I saw a curveball up and put a good swing on it. I didn’t try to do too much, which is kinda what I was guilty of against Smeltzer.”

The next batter, Benintendi, worked the count full. Duffey and catcher Gary Sanchez conferred briefly prior to the final pitch to Benintendi, which was well below the strike zone. That brought Witt, who had been 0 for 3, to the plate.

Witt fell behind 0-2 in the count, fouled off a pitch and then took a ball out of the zone to get to 1-2. He lined a curveball to left-center to drive in Merrifield with the go-ahead run, Witt’s second career go-ahead hit in the eighth inning or later.

“At that time you’ve just got to grind,” Witt said. “It’s you versus the pitcher. Just try to get the job done. I know that my teammates had my back if I weren’t going to get the job done. I was comfortable up there.”

Barlow pitched two scoreless innings, including the amazing escape act in the eighth, to record his fifth save of the season. The Twins (27-18) got the tying run to third base with two outs in the ninth before he locked it down.

Royals starting pitcher Daniel Lynch allowed two runs, seven hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six.

Lynch bounced back from his last outing when he allowed four runs in 3 2/3 innings against the Twins last week at Kauffman Stadium. He’d pitched through back stiffness in that outing.

“That’s something that I’ve felt like I tried to do a lot more this year, just pitch to my strengths and trust that my strengths are going to work,” Lynch said of facing the same opponent in back-to-back outings. “Obviously, there’s a little more nuance to it than that, but you pick out the pitches that you trust and you go with those until you get told to make an adjustment.”

The Twins scored runs in the second and fourth innings against Lynch. The first run came on a Ryan Jeffers RBI single to left field with two men. It came one batter after Jose Miranda reached on a scorcher to third base that Emmanuel Rivera tried to backhand, but could only knock down. Miranda’s infield single moved a runner into scoring position with one out.

Lynch gave up the second run of the game on a two-out RBI single to right field by Gilberto Celistino in the fourth. Celistino was able to take a slider at the bottom of the strike zone and on the outer third and go the other way with it for a single.

“You could tell he was healthy this time,” Matheny said. “You could tell he was finishing his fastball. He did a great job. He used both sides. The slider, I thought, was exceptional today.”