Twins 2, Royals 1 (11): Josh Willingham delivered an RBI single in the 11th inning to lift visiting Minnesota to victory in the opener of a three-game series.

After stranding Darin Mastroianni at third base following a leadoff triple in the 10th, the Twins pounced on Jonathan Broxton (1-2) an inning later. Mauer opened the 11th with a double and raced home on Willingham's single without a throw from right fielder Jeff Francoeur.

Kansas City had a golden opportunity to tie it in the bottom half as Alcides Escobar led off with a double and went to third on a flyout. But Twins second baseman Alexi Casilla fielded Mike Moustakas' grounder and threw out Escobar at the plate, and Glen Perkins induced a groundout by Jarrod Dyson to nail down his fifth save.

Casey Fien (1-0) tossed two perfect innings en route to his first career win for the Twins, who had lost nine of 12 overall and four of five on the road.

Minnesota got on the board with two outs in the second inning as Mastroianni launched a belt-high fastball from Luke Hochevar over the left-field wall for his second career home run.

The Royals tied the contest in the seventh, when Eric Hosmer led off with a single and scored on a two-out double by Yuniesky Betancourt that got past left fielder Willingham.

Both starters were impressive as Hochevar allowed one run and five hits while striking out six in seven innings, while Minnesota's Nick Blackburn yielded a run and seven hits over 6 2/3 frames.

Escobar collected three hits for the Royals, who fell to 2-6 on their 10-game homestand and a major league-worst 16-29 in their own ballpark.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Minnesota 3B Trevor Plouffe left the game after eight innings with a bruised right thumb. ...Blackburn made his first start for the Twins since July 3. He had spent the last two weeks with Triple-A Rochester. ... Kansas City acquired RHP Jeremy Guthrie from Colorado for LHP Jonathan Sanchez. Guthrie, who went 3-9 with a 6.35 ERA in 19 games - 15 starts - with the Rockies, is expected to start Sunday's series finale. Sanchez was designated for assignment on Tuesday, one day after allowing seven runs in only 1 1/3 innings against Seattle.