MINNEAPOLIS _ Fresh off an agonizing weekend at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals rebounded with an old-fashioned beatdown on Monday afternoon.
Kendrys Morales and Eric Hosmer each pounded three-run homers, and the offense finished with 16 hits in an 11-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
On the first day of a six-game road trip, the Royals erased a 4-2 deficit and weathered a career day from Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, who hit three homers and set a single-season record with 10 homers against Kansas City in 2016.
Dozier's power display tested Royals starter Ian Kennedy, who allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings. It was no match for the Kansas City offensive explosion in the late innings.
Jarrod Dyson was 3 for 5 with three runs scored. Five other players finished with at least two hits. The Royals turned the afternoon into a blowout with two runs in the seventh and four in the eighth.
Just 21 hours after a gutting 6-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals were back on the field in Minneapolis, opening a three-game series against the Twins.
If Kansas City was going to mount a last stand in the American League wild-card race, it will have to begin on an overcast afternoon at Target Field. In the next 15 days, the Royals would play 14 games against teams under .500, including the last-place Twins and Oakland Athletics. The first started in ominous fashion.
On Kennedy's first pitch of the game, Dozier clubbed a solo homer into the seats in left field. In that moment, it represented Dozier's 36th homer of the season and eighth against the Royals in 2016. He was not finished.
After the Royals scored twice in the second, taking a 2-1 lead, Dozier returned to the plate in the bottom of the third. For nine pitches, Kennedy and Dozier dueled, with Dozier fouling off five pitches as the count went to 3-2. On the 10th pitch, Kennedy left a fastball up and in. Dozier cranked one into the upper deck for a 3-2 lead.
With his ninth homer against the Royals, he set a record for the most by an opponent against Kansas City in a single season.
The Twins would add another run in the fourth after a mental breakdown from Kennedy. With Minnesota's Eddie Rosario on second base, Eduardo Escobar dropped down a sacrifice bunt. Salvador Perez sprang from his crouch and made an impressive play on a spinning throw. But Kennedy _ and third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert _ forgot to cover home. Rosario took off for the plate, and the Twins had a 4-2 lead.
From there, the Royals' offense took over. With two on and two out in the fifth, Morales blasted a towering homer to right field off Twins starter Jose Berrios. The blast erased a 4-2 deficit with one swing and expedited Berrios' exit after five innings.
The Royals would maul the Twins bullpen in the seventh and eighth.
