MINNEAPOLIS _ Granted, the Twins have gotten on a roll against two of baseball's worst teams. But it had to start somewhere. And they did what they needed to do against who they needed to do it against.
They dispatched the Royals 8-5 on Wednesday to take two of three games against their AL Central foe. The offense, from top to bottom, was a threat. Brian Dozier and Logan Morrison are finding their power strokes. Lance Lynn needed 114 pitches to get through five-plus innings, but shook off a bad first inning to do so.
Most importantly, the Twins took the series against Kansas City after sweeping Baltimore in four. They have won six of their first seven games of their current homestand, their best stretch of play since they won eight out of 10 in early May to climb two games of .500.
And this isn't suggesting they have solved all their problems and can postpone October hunting trips. The Twins remain eight games under .500 and can't be taken seriously until that is dealt with. But they are showing what's possible when their pitching and hitting are in sync.
"I don't think we're red-hot. I think we're better," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "There are some signs of life as far as the bats coming around. The starts have been mostly good, which you need if you're going to go on some kind of a run. Just trying to get through his homestand. It's an overstatement but we have to win as many games as we can heading into the break given where we're at."
And they are four games closer to achieving that, as Tampa Bay comes to town Thursday for the first of four games.
The Twins fell behind 3-0 in the first inning Wednesday following a Savlador Perez three-run homer off of Lynn. But Lynn recovered to hold the Royals to one run over the next four innings while the Twins mounted a comeback.
They scored two in the second on Wilson's two-out single to center. Kansas City took a 4-2 lead in the third off of Mike Moustakas' home run to right.
But the Twins scored three runs in the fourth to take a 5-4 lead. Wilson belted an RBI double. Then, with the bases loaded, Dozier hit a swinging bunt down the third base line that he beat out for a hit as Royals pitcher Glenn Sparkman fielded and threw wildly to first as two runs scored.
The bottom of the Twins order _ Max Kepler, Jake Cave and Wilson, combined to go 6-for-11 with three RBIs and five runs scored. Cave has a seven game hitting streak. Wilson had three hits in a game for the first time since Aug. 24, 2016.
Combined with Dozier, who was 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs, and Joe Mauer, who was 3-for-5, it continued the roll the offense has been on. The Twins have averaged 5.9 runs a game this homestand and have hit .351 with runners in scoring position.
"All around, I think everything is starting to click," Dozier said. "Starting to see some signs of a really good offense."
Dozier hit a two-run homer in the sixth, followed by a solo blast by Logan Morrison to make it 8-4. More than enough to absorb Moustaksas' ninth-inning homer, his second of the game.
And it made a winner out of Lynn, 7-7, who wasn't sharp and was lifted two batters into the sixth _ but was rewarded for limiting the damage.
"You're going to have those days where you give up a couple early, but with this offense, especially as of late, you've just got to kind of stop it there and let them get going," Lynn said. "You see what they did at the end there."
