KANSAS CITY, MO. — There are losses. And then there are excruciating losses.

The Twins have gotten all too familiar with the latter in recent days.

Against a division foe that has given him fits for years, Twins starter Bailey Ober turned in one of the best outings of his season. Ober rolled through the Royals, sending down 15 straight batters in order to finish his outing. He was lifted after seven shutout innings and just 83 pitches in favor of a rested Jhoan Duran.

Duran struck out the first batter of the eighth inning, and then things started crumbling. The Royals, held to just one hit in the first seven innings, scored four runs in the eighth inning and beat the Twins 4-2 on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.

After Duran retired his first batter, the Twins had a win probability of 89%. In mere minutes, that number plummeted. Duran allowed a single, hit a batter and then gave up another hit, which produced the Royals’ first run of the night and knocked him out of the game.

Griffin Jax was summoned to try to get a five-out save, but things continued to go sideways for the Twins. Shortstop Brooks Lee barehanded a softly hit Tommy Pham groundball and made an off-balance throw that got past first baseman Kyle Farmer, allowing the tying run to score.

That brought up Bobby Witt Jr., one of the best hitters in the game, who, after being held hitless in the series, delivered the go-ahead single to center. The Royals scored one more run in the inning, turning what looked as if it could be a nice win for the Twins into yet another disappointing loss.

It also meant Ober’s dominant start went for naught. Ober, who has historically been dominated by the Royals, stepped up when his team needed him in a game with big playoff positioning implications.

Ober and the Twins had been leading since the third inning when they broke through against starter Alec Marsh. Jose Miranda’s triple and Matt Wallner’s double provided a pair of runs, but the Twins were held off the scoreboard by the Royals for the rest of the night.