Minnesota scored five runs in the eighth inning en route to an 8-4 win over the Kansas City Royals Monday night at Target Field.
Eddy Julien got the party started with a towering homer to start the eighth and the Twins batted around and scored four more runs on a walk by Joey Gallo followed by five straight singles by Michael A. Taylor, Max Kepler, Carlos Correa and Alex Kirilloff.
Julien pinch hit for Kyle Farmer and unloaded on a fastball that left his bat at 105.7 mph and landed an estimated 413 feet later in the second deck in right-center field.
Eddie for the lead! 🎣 #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/dYZXNIR0lQ
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) July 4, 2023
The Twins are now 33-11 when scoring at least four runs and 10-32 when scoring three runs or fewer. They’ve also lost an MLB high 13 games when allowing three runs or fewer.
Joe Ryan didn’t factor in the decision, but the right-handed allowed just two runs over six innings while striking out nine Kansas City batters. Ryan’s night started the same way his last start against Atlanta did by allowing a homer on the first pitch of the game. Ronald Acuna Jr. took Ryan deep in Atlanta and Mikael Garcia homered on the first pitch for the Royals.
Correa went 4-for-5 to up his batting average to .228. Byron Buxton went 0-for-3 but did have a pair of RBI sacrifice flies.
Up next: Twins vs. Royals, Tuesday at 1:10 p.m. CT.
