KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The Twins have had a habit of scoring in the early innings then doing little in the late innings, and it has cost them a couple games.
Not on Saturday. After scoring in the first inning they put away Kansas City with a three-run seventh inning on the way to a 7-2 victory at Kauffman Stadium.
Right-hander Randy Dobnak went five-plus innings to improve to 5-1 and join Cleveland's Shane Bieber with the most wins in the majors. Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano each hit home runs and Lamote Wade Jr. added two hits.
The Twins didn't waste time taking it to the Royals. Max Kepler led off the game with a double and Jorge Polanco reached on an infield hit. Rosario then blasted the first pitch he saw out to right-center for a three-run home run.
Sano led off the fourth with his fifth home run, a towering 458-foot blast to left to give the Twins a 4-0 lead.
Dobnak ran into trouble in the fifth, giving up a home run to Alex Gordon and a RBI double to Nicky Lopez. He took the mound for the sixth but was gone two batters later. Tyler Duffey replaced him and, after hitting Gordon to load the bases with one out, struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
Any thoughts by the Royals of a rally were squashed in the seventh when the Twins scored three runs, including a two-out, two-strike, two-run single by Sano. The Twins entered Saturday having scored 22 runs in the first inning but only nine in the seventh inning.
Teams love having innings in which they score crooked numbers of runs. Doing it to grab an early lead then close the door late is even better.
The Twins are 4-5 against the Royals with one game remaining in the season series. They also can win their fourth straight series.
