Bruce Chen fell apart in the 6th inning and the KC Royals comeback fell short, as they lost to the Minnesota Twins, 10-8. That meant the Royals also lost the series.

With the game tied at 1-1, the Royals took a 5-1 lead in the top of the 6th inning against Twins starter Francisco Liriano. The first two runs scored on two Twins errors. Irving Falu drove in the final two runs with a double.

Heading to the mound with all that run support, Bruce Chen fell apart. After a triple by Brian Dozier, Denard Span drove him in with a bunt. After a walk and a single,  Josh Willingham hit a three-run homerun. Chen then struck out Justin Morneau before giving up another homerun to Trevor Plouffe. That ended Chen’s day, as he was now losing 6-5.

The Royals had their chance in the 9th inning, but the rally fell short. Down 10-5 with two outs, the comeback began. Eric Hosmer singled, moved to second base, and scored on Brayan Pena’s single. Pinch-hitter Salvador Perez followed with a double and Falu drove them both in with a single.

That brought up Alex Gordon as the tying run, but he grounded out to end the game.

That rally would have been a game winner, if not for Aaron Crow allowing a three-run homerun to Drew Butera in the 8th inning with two outs. It was Butera’s first of the season.

Hosmer raised his average up over .230 with three hits. Falu continues to hit when he plays, as he had two hits (and four RBIs). Pena also had two hits and two RBIs.

Now the Royals head to Toronto with lefty Everett Teaford getting the start on Monday against fellow lefty Ricky Romero.

*I thought you couldn’t hit the ball out of Target Field? Wasn’t that what the Twins players were complaining about after it opened? The ball sure carried this weekend and Plouffe was taking full advantage (he hit three).

The Twins hit eight. Maybe it was the heat or the poor pitching.

** The Royals had back-to-back winning months for the first time since 2007.

Rumors were swirling all afternoon about the Boston Red Sox’ interest in KC Royals starter Bruce Chen for a possible Game 163. The Red Sox rotation has been in shambles for the last month and they were looking for insurance (they had Kevin Millwood but let him go and he pitched well late for Colorado). Instead, the Red Sox passed and Chen was on the hill for the Royals in their season finale in Minnesota.

It was the result that I had a hunch about: a pitcher’s duel between two veteran starters who didn’t want the season to end on a sour note. Chen was matched up against Carl Pavano, who re-signed this offseason with the Twins not expecting for the team to flounder in last place.

Chen put up zeros for eight innings, but was relieved by Blake Wood in the 9th inning. Chen allowed nine hits and two walks and struck out four. Pavano pitched nine shutout innings. He allowed just five hits while striking out three. Pavano only threw 95 pitches.

Wood got Joe Benson (who had two hits in the game) to ground out for the first out. Denard Span pinch-hit for Drew Butera and doubled. Wood got Ben Revere to ground out, which moved Span over to third base. Up came Trevor Plouffe, who ripped the second pitch into left field for a walk-off RBI single.

Mike Moustakas and Jarrod Dyson each collected two hits off Pavano in the game.

While the playoffs start on Friday, Royals players will be packing up and heading home. Enjoy the offseason guys and hopefully you’ll be playing meaningful baseball next September!

* Dyson was caught stealing for the first time in the big leagues by Twins catcher Drew Butera.