Twins Sweep Royals With 4-3 Win

Minneapolis, MN (Sports Network) - Denard Span punctuated a three-run fifth inning with a two-run triple, and the Minnesota Twins held on to beat Kansas City, 4-3, to complete a three-game sweep at Target Field.

J.J. Hardy had two hits, including a solo home run, and scored twice for the Twins, who have won six games in a row and finished 8-1 on their nine-game homestand.

Brian Duensing (8-2) pitched eight solid innings for Minnesota, giving up one run on six hits with seven strikeouts.

Matt Capps picked up his 37th save of the season despite yielding two runs in the ninth. It was his 11th save with the Twins.

Minnesota increased its lead in the AL Central over Chicago to 5 1/2 games after the White Sox lost to Detroit earlier Wednesday.

Zack Greinke (8-12), who entered with an 0-3 record and a 10.29 ERA in three starts against the Twins this year, allowed four runs and five hits in a complete-game performance.

Brayan Pena knocked in two runs for the Royals.

Francisco Liriano pitched seven solid innings and Delmon Young drove in four runs, as the Minnesota Twins cruised to a 10-3 win over the Kansas City Royals in the middle contest of a three-game series.

Liriano (13-7), who remained unbeaten in 10 starts since the All-Star break, yielded two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts for the Twins, who have won five straight and increased their lead atop the AL Central to 4 1/2 games over the White Sox. Chicago lost to Detroit earlier Tuesday. J.J. Hardy delivered three RBI while Jim Thome homered and scored three runs in the victory.

“You go through good times and you want them to last as long as they can, and we all pick each other up at different times,” said Thome. “Now we need to focus on tomorrow’s game.”

Josh Fields homered for the Royals, who have lost five of their last six overall.

Brian Bannister (7-12) started on the hill for KC and suffered the loss after he allowed seven runs on eight hits with two walks over 2 2/3 innings.

After Hardy’s sacrifice fly in the second gave the Twins an early lead, they exploded for six runs in the third. Denard Span began the decisive bottom of the third with a single and stole second base before two straight outs ensued. Jason Kubel kept the inning alive with an RBI single before another base hit by Michael Cuddyer and a walk issued to Thome loaded the bases.

Young then stepped to the plate and ripped a two-run single to left field. Both Young and Thome advanced one base when Bannister uncorked a wild pitch and Hardy came through with the second two-run single of the inning. Matt Tolbert’s triple brought home Hardy and capped the uprising.

“They are a good team — they’re not leading this division for nothing,” said Royals manager Ned Yost. “They swing the bat, they catch the ball and they throw strikes.”

Fields’ two-out solo blast in the fourth got the Royals on the scoreboard.

In the bottom of the fourth, Young’s two-run double gave the Twins a 9-1 advantage. Orlando Hudson and Mauer both singled and came home on the hit by Young, his 96th and 97th RBI of the season.

KC’s other run came in the fifth when a Liriano wild pitch allowed Jai Miller to cross the plate.

Thome’s 22nd home run of the season and 586th of his career, a solo shot to right field, increased the cushion to 10-2.

Gregor Blanco’s RBI single in the top of the ninth capped the scoring.

Game Notes

Liriano has not lost at home since June 28 and improved to 7-3 at home this season…Minnesota has won 10 of its last 12 games overall…The Twins are now 47-23 at home in 2010…This was Bannister’s first start since he returned from the DL (shoulder tendinitis)…It was Fields’ first homer of the year…Royals first baseman Billy Butler left the game after being hit in the hand by a ground ball in the third inning.

Capturing a second straight American League Central title may be the Minnesota Twins’ main objective, but judging by the team’s performance at Target Field this season, having home-field advantage for the opening round of the playoffs would be a big deal as well.

The first-place Twins will try to move a step closer towards accomplishing both goals in tonight’s middle test of a three-game series with the visiting Kansas City Royals.

Minnesota maintained its 3 1/2-game advantage on the determined Chicago White Sox for the Central’s top spot with Monday’s 5-4 decision over the Royals. The win was the Twins’ fourth in a row and ninth in their last 11 contests, and improved Ron Gardenhire’s squad to an outstanding 46-23 at Target Field this season.

The Twins have now won 17 of their past 20 games at the first-year ballpark and are in excellent position to start the postseason at home if they can hold off the White Sox for the division crown. With both the top team and the wild card likely to come out of the AL East, Minnesota currently owns a 5 1/2-game lead on West front-runner Texas for the No. 2 seed for the upcoming playoffs.

Jason Kubel snapped a 2-2 tie in Monday’s matchup with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning, with Jim Thome belting a solo shot two batters later to give the Twins a three-run cushion. The long ball was the 585th of Thome’s storied career, moving the veteran slugger one away from catching Frank Robinson for eighth place on baseball’s all-time list.

Thome’s homer also proved to be an important one, as the Royals scored twice in the top of the sixth to pull within 5-4. They would get no closer, however, as relievers Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain and Matt Capps kept Kansas City off the board over the final three frames to come out on top.

Capps threw a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his 10th save since joining Minnesota in a trade with Washington just prior to the July 31 non-waiver deadline.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Capps said about his time with the Twins. “Hopefully, we keep playing good baseball and it remains fun.”

Brayan Pena finished 2-for-4 with two RBI for Kansas City, losers of four of its five games. Starting pitcher Sean O’Sullivan (2-5) was hung with the defeat after allowing five runs, including the pivotal homers to Kubel and Thome, over 4 2/3 innings of work.

“Two pitches changed the whole game,” O’Sullivan said afterward.

The Royals hope to fair better tonight behind Brian Bannister in the right- hander’s return from a month-long stint on the disabled list due to shoulder tendinitis.

Bannister had been struggling mightily prior to being shelved on August 3, losing five straight starts and going 1-7 with a brutal 7.96 earned run average over a 10-game stretch beginning in mid-June. One of those setbacks came against the Twins in Kansas City on July 28, when he was reached for five runs and 11 hits over six innings.

The 29-year-old, who tossed 3 1/3 scoreless frames in his final rehab assignment for Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday, did throw 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball to beat Minnesota on April 25 and is 4-5 with a 4.36 ERA over 12 lifetime starts against the Twins.

Minnesota counters with Francisco Liriano, who’ll putting his unbeaten second- half record on the line in tonight’s tilt. In nine starts since the All-Star break, the tough left-hander has compiled a 6-0 mark along with a sensational 2.17 ERA and allowed only a single home run in a span of 58 innings.

Liriano didn’t come up with a victory his last time out, although he certainly deserved one after limiting Detroit to five hits and striking out seven batters over seven shutout innings on Wednesday. He exited the game with a 1-0 lead, but the Tigers would tie it against the Minnesota bullpen later on.

The Dominican native also fired seven scoreless frames in a July 26 encounter at Kansas City, this time gaining the win in a 19-1 Twins’ rout. The effort moved Liriano to 4-3 with a 4.04 ERA in 10 career appearances (seven starts) against the Royals.

In 13 starts at Target Field, where he hasn’t lost since June 28, Liriano is 6-3 with an impressive 2.51 ERA.

The 26-year-old will be trying to pitch the Twins to a fifth consecutive win over Kansas City. Minnesota has gone 10-3 against the Royals so far this season and has prevailed in five of the seven games between the teams held in Minneapolis.

Jason Kubel and Jim Thome both homered in the bottom of the fifth inning, as the Minnesota Twins clipped Kansas City, 5-4, in the opener of a three-game series at Target Field.

Thome, who now has 585 career home runs, one shy of Frank Robinson for eighth place on the all-time list, added an RBI double.

Fresh off a three-game sweep of AL West-leading Texas, Minnesota maintained its 3 1/2-game lead over Chicago in the AL Central. The White Sox beat Detroit in extra innings on Monday.

Kevin Slowey returned from a trip to the 15-day disabled list to start for the Twins and gave up two runs on seven hits in four innings. He landed on the DL with a right triceps strain after throwing just three frames against the Angels on August 21.

Jeff Manship (2-0) worked two innings to get the win.

Brayan Pena drove in two runs for the Royals, who have lost 18 of their last 22 games to Minnesota. Sean O’Sullivan (2-5) yielded five runs on seven hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings.

Pena recorded a run-scoring groundout in the second and Chris Getz followed with an RBI double to give Kansas City a 2-0 lead.

The Twins got a run back in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Matt Tolbert, then tied the game on Thome’s double in the fourth before seizing the lead in the next frame.

Joe Mauer hit a one-out single in the fifth and Kubel followed with a blast to left-center field. After Michael Cuddyer grounded out, Thome launched a pitch to right to give Minnesota a 5-2 advantage.

“Two pitches changed the whole game,” O’Sullivan said.

The Royals trimmed their deficit with two runs off Manship in the sixth. Back- to-back doubles by Alex Gordon and Pena produced a run. Pena then took third on a sacrifice and came home on a Yuniesky Betancourt groundout.

Kansas City had a base runner in both the seventh and eighth innings, but failed to move him into scoring position.

Matt Capps pitched a flawless ninth for his 36th save of the season. It was his 10th as a member of the Twins.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Capps said about his time in Minnesota. “Hopefully, we keep playing good baseball and it remains fun.”

Game Notes

Cuddyer went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 11 games…Kansas City’s Billy Butler singled in the third, giving him a hit in 96 straight series, which ties the club record set by Willie Wilson from 1979-81…Minnesota is 10-3 against the Royals in 2010.