Samuel Deduno fixed Twins manager Ron Gardenhire with a stare. Gardy stared right back. Nobody wanted to budge. It was the sixth inning and Deduno had been shutting down the punchless Kansas City Royals all night, but he'd just allowed a leadoff double. Gardenhire trundled out to the mound while calling to the bullpen, only to receive a withering look from his young right-handed pitcher. "He was definitely eyeballing me," Gardenhire said. "And I was definitely eyeballing him when we got out of the inning. I told him, 'I think I know what I'm doing, Sammy.' " The Twins' bullpen picked Deduno up by escaping his sixth-inning jam, and then kept the Royals off the scoreboard the rest of the way in a 3-0 win Tuesday night that left Kansas City with its franchise-record 11th consecutive home loss.
