After a disappointing home opener, the Minnesota Twins bounced back to take two-of-three from the Kansas City Royals, with an 8-5 victory at Target Field Thursday afternoon.
The loss was the second in 24 hours for the Royals, who came into the series unbeaten at 6-0.
Tommy Milone gave up three runs on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings, while striking out and walking three. It wasn’t as good as his first outing last week, but was good enough to pick up the win.
Royals starter Jason Vargas gave up five runs (four earned) on 10 hits in just three innings.
Kennys Vargas had a pair of hits to lead the Twins offense, including this impressive two-run homer.
Kurt Suzuki also hit a two-run homer later, while Torii Hunter was 3-for-5 with a run scored. Danny Santana also had two hits for the Twins and Joe Mauer drove in three runs.
Kansas City took the early lead, with two runs in the top of the first inning off of Milone. Lorenzo Cain remained red hot as he hit a two-run blast putting the Royals on the scoreboard.
Minnesota answered in the bottom of the second with Vargas’ homer.
After the Royals reclaimed the lead in the third at 3-2, the Twins answered with two more in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-3 lead, then added one more in the fourth.
The game remained 5-3 until the eighth, when Minnesota tacked on three more runs to push their lead to 8-3. The Royals mounted a threat in the ninth to make it a save situation for Glen Perkins, who came in and promptly closed the door, for his second save in as many days.
The Twins will open a three-game weekend series against Cleveland on Friday. Mike Pelfrey (0-0) will start on Friday for the Twins, while Cleveland will counter with Cory Kluber (0-1).
