Twins foiled by Royals in 1-0 shutout, finish MLB draft

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KANSAS CITY -- Kansas City lefty Bruce Chen tossed seven innings of four-hit ball to lead the Royals to a 1-0 win over the Twins last night.

Chen struck out five and walked none to even his record at 5-and-5. Jonathan Broxton closed things out to earn his 14th save. Brayan Pena plated the game's only run on a single in the second inning. Francisco Liriano struck out eight, but allowed Pena's single during his six innings of work to fall to 1-6.

The same two teams close out their three game series tonight in KC.

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The Royals recalled pitcher Ryan Verdugo before last night's game against the Twins. To make room, pitcher Will Smith was optioned back to Triple-A Omaha. Smith allowed 14 runs in 14 innings over three starts with KC. Verdugo was 3-1 with a 3.61 ERA at Omaha.

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Joe Mauer of the Twins is third among American League catchers in voting for the All-Star Game. Mauer is over 587,000 votes behind Mike Napoli of the Rangers for the top spot in fan balloting. Matt Wieters of the Orioles is in second place.

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The Minnesota Twins yesterday drafted 15 more players in this year's Major League Baseball draft. Eleven of those players were pitchers, as the team is trying to restock their minor league system with strong-throwing arms. Mason Melotakis was the first player selected by Minnesota on day two of the draft. He is a lefty from Houston, Texas. The draft continues today and tonight. The Twins drafted the son of former big league Lee Mazzili in the ninth round. L.J. Mazzili played infield for the University of Connecticut this past season.

Tags: minnesota sports, baseball, twins, proam