KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The Twins used a much-needed power surge to end a couple of losing streaks on Wednesday, belting four home runs on the way to a 9-6 victory over the Royals to avoid getting swept in the four-game series.
With the win, the Twins ended their eight-game road losing streak as well as their eight game losing streak at Kauffman Stadium. They are still 18-39 in Kansas City since 2013.
In addition to the four home runs, Johnny Field had a career high four hits and Jorge Polanco tied a career high with four hits. Right-hander Kyle Gibson, making his 30th start of the season, improved to 8-13 and snapped a four-start losing streak.
The Royals grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back RBI doubles by Ryan O'Hearn and Rosell Herrera. And with the Royals already winners of the first three games of the series, it looked like they were on their way to a fourth.
But Jorge Polanco, with two outs and runners on first and second, worked a 10-pitch at bat against right-hander Jakob Junis before dumping an RBI single to center to get the Twins on the board.
Max Kepler then got hold of a Junis slider in the third and sent it into the fountains in right to tie the game. Little did the Twins know their power surge was just the beginning.
The Twins struck for three runs in the fourth inning, beginning with back-to-back home runs by Tyler Austin and Johnny Field and ended by a Robbie Grossman's RBI single.
A 5-2 lead seemed to be enough for Gibson to manage, but Brian Goodwin hit an RBI single in the fourth and Adalberto Mondesi blasted a Gibson slider out to left for a two-run, game-tying homer.
Molitor saw no problem with the developments, and left Gibson in. He was rewarded with 1 2/3 scoreless innings before he needed Taylor Rogers to get the final out of the seventh inning.
Gibson also was rewarded with a lead. As the Twins scored twice in the sixth, one on Polanco's homer to left and the other when Eddie Rosario raced home from third when O'Hearn, playing first base, missed a pickoff throw for an error.
Rogers completed the seventh, running his scoreless innings streak to 22. Ehire Adrianza added a RBI double in the ninth to increase the lead to 8-5. Field collected his fourth hit of the day in the ninth, against a drawn-in infield, scoring Adrianza to make it 9-5.
