The consecutive-game streak, which had reached a major league-high 217 games, didn't mean much to Delmon Young, the Twins' left fielder said after he watched a 5-1 victory over Kansas City from the dugout.
He even joked about it. "I've been taking days off, but my stats keep going down," he said.
That part is true; Young has one hit in his last 23 at-bats, and he has driven in only two runs since May 12. So when Young made four bad fielding plays in three games, including a pair of errors Wednesday, manager Ron Gardenhire decided a "mental break" was in order.
"There comes a time where you just have to say he might need a day off," Gardenhire said of his decision to start someone else -- in this case, Jason Kubel -- in left field. "You can see he's fighting it pretty hard, even defensively. ... I was hoping he'd come back out yesterday, get some hits, rebound. But it didn't happen."
Young had last missed a game on Sept. 28, 2006, while with Tampa Bay, though he pointed out that he started only 159 games last season, entering three in the late innings.
"I'll take a day off anytime," Young said. "It's bound to happen sometime."
TWINS 5, ROYALS 1: Kevin Slowey pitched the first complete game of his career and came within one out of a shutout, helping complete a sweep of the Royals. Carlos Gomez and Alexi Casilla combined for seven hits at the top of the order, powering an offense that won five of six games on a weeklong road trip. Slowey limited the Royals, who have lost 11 straight, to four hits (all singles) through the first eight innings, but he surrendered a pair of doubles in the ninth.
