KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Twins lost 4-2 to the Kansas City Royals in the opener a four-game road trip to Kauffman Stadium on Monday night, dropping their record to 3-7. It’s the Twins worst start to a season since 2016, when they went 1-9.

Home plate umpire Nic Lentz ejected Twins manager Rocco Baldelli in the bottom of the sixth inning for arguing a pitch-clock violation call against right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson.

The Twins got a bit of much-needed length from Richardson, but he allowed four runs, eight hits and four walks in 5 2/3 innings. The Twins in the club’s previous two outings got just four innings from their starting pitchers, and they came into play last in the majors in innings pitched by starters, averaging about 4 1/2 per outing.

Baldelli was ejected for the 15th time in his career after Lentz called a pitch-clock violation that resulted in an automatic ball, which gave Jonathan India a walk.

With seven seconds to go, Woods Richardson stepped off the rubber and appeared to signal that he couldn’t hear the communications with catcher Christian Vázquez. When he couldn’t get a timeout called, Woods Richardson ascended the rubber and began his delivery with two seconds remaining. At this point, Lentz signed that Woods Richardson was in violation, giving a free base to India.

Baldelli burst from the dugout shaking his finger and arguing in obvious disagreement. He appeared to shout “You [messed] up” at Lentz, who let Baldelli blow off some steam, but the manager appeared intent on getting run. After he was, Baldelli kicked his foot across home plate, threw his lineup card and other items from the dugout. Coach Jayce Tingler took over managing duties the rest of the way.

Twins left fielder Harrison Bader made a pair of highlight reel catches in the seventh. The Twins offense couldn’t muster much offense against right-hander Michael Lorenzen or the Royals bullpen, aside from Willi Castro’s score-tying RBI double in the second.

India led off the bottom the first inning with a double to left-center after outfielder Byron Buxton couldn’t hang on for the catch. Buxton appeared to protect himself by slowing down before crashing into the padded fence, and might have taken his eye off the ball.

After Bobby Witt flied to right and failed to move the runner, India scored on a bloop double by Vinnie Pasquantino that Bader booted after a tough hop, though not for an error.

The Twins mounted a rally against closer Carlos Estévez in the ninth, with Bader lining an RBI single with two out, which also put the tying run at first base. Edouard Julien worked the count to 3-1, but grounded sharply to second for the final out.

The Royals improved to 5-5.

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