Jorge Soler went 4-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs, and Hunter Dozier smacked his first major league homer for Kansas City. Ryan Goins added a two-run triple for the Royals, who were on top 9-0 after two innings before seeing most of the lead evaporate.
Dozier, Goins, Moustakas and Salvador Perez each had two hits and Kansas City had 16 overall while winning for the sixth time in nine games.
Miguel Sano had three RBIs for the Twins, who have dropped six of their past seven games. Ehire Adrianza and Brian Dozier homered, while Eduardo Escobar and Adrianza each had two RBIs.
Minnesota scored eight consecutive runs to pull within 9-8 before the Royals' bullpen retired the final 10 batters.
Brian Flynn retired the final hitter in the sixth, Kevin McCarthy (4-2) got four outs, Tim Hill recorded the final two outs in the eighth and Kelvin Herrera worked a perfect ninth for his 12th save of the campaign.
Moustakas ripped a two-run double in the first inning off Twins right-hander Fernando Romero (2-2) to get the Royals on the board. Kansas City then sent 11 batters to the plate in a seven-run second inning.
Jay hit a sacrifice fly for the inning's first run. Moustakas belted a two-run homer that barely cleared the fence down the right field line to make it 5-0. Jorge Soler's RBI double, Alex Gordon's run-scoring single and Goins' two-run triple capped the uprising for a 9-0 lead.
Minnesota began chipping away on Sano's run-scoring single in the third. Adrianza recorded an RBI double in the fourth before the Twins added two in the fifth on Brian Dozier's solo homer and Escobar's run-scoring single to move within 9-4.
Adrianza smacked a solo blast in a four-run sixth. Minnesota also received a two-run double from Sano and an RBI single by Escobar to cut the Kansas City lead to 9-8.
Hunter Dozier gave the Royals a two-run cushion in the bottom of seventh with a line-drive homer to left. Soler lined his own homer of the left in the eighth to make it 11-8 and cap his second career four-hit game.
Romero was torched for eight runs and nine hits in 1 2/3 innings. The rookie allowed just six runs over his first five big league starts.
Royals fill-in right-hander Brad Keller made his first career start and exited after 51 pitches. He allowed one run and three hits over three innings.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | Kansas City | |
Fernando Romero | Player | Brad Keller |
Loss | W/L | No Decision |
1.2 | IP | 3.0 |
1 | Strikeouts | 3 |
9 | Hits | 3 |
43.20 | ERA | 3.00 |
Minnesota | Kansas City | |
Ehire Adrianza | Player | Jorge Soler |
2 | Hits | 4 |
2 | RBI | 2 |
1 | HR | 1 |
6 | TB | 8 |
.500 | Avg | .800 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Minnesota | 11 | 2 | 21 | .297 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Kansas City | 16 | 3 | 29 | .410 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 0 |