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Royals hit 3 HRs, power past Twins

Aug 17, 2014 - 11:00 PM Minneapolis, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer and Josh Willingham and Salvador Perez added solo blasts as the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 12-6 on Sunday.

The Royals did most of their damage in a seven-run second inning that knocked Twins left-hander Tommy Milone out of the game in the shortest start of his career.

Jeremy Guthrie (9-10) went seven innings for the Kansas City, remaining in the game to get the win despite sitting out a 54-minute rain delay in the bottom of the fourth. The right-hander gave up four runs on five hits and two walks and had seven strikeouts.

Royals manager Ned Yost said his timeline for young pitchers is to take them out if they wait 45 minutes during a delay. Veteran pitchers get an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.

Guthrie, an 11-year veteran, fell well short of that mark, and has a knack for shaking off long delays anyway, Yost said.

"It just seems like every time we have these types of games he's on the mound," Yost said. "He just does a great job of staying loose ... so when he goes back on the mound he takes like nine pitches and he's ready to go."

The Royals improved to 15-3 in their last 18 games. The AL Central leaders bounced back after having a five-game road winning streak snapped in a 4-1 loss on Saturday in the second game of this four-game series. They haven't dropped back-to-back games since July 27 and 29.

Kennys Vargas had three hits, including a two-run homer, and knocked in three runs for the Twins. Oswaldo Arcia also had a two-run homer and Joe Mauer added a solo blast.

Making his second appearance for the Twins since being acquired from Oakland, Milone (6-4) got just four outs in his shortest-ever start.

Six of the seven runs charged to Milone in the second inning were earned as he had a 12-start unbeaten streak snapped since his last loss on May 3 in Boston.

Milone gave up four singles and two walks in the inning and hit one batter. Alcides Escobar and Nori Aoki each stroked two-run singles and two runs scored when Omar Infante's grounder got past a drawn-in Brian Dozier at second base for an error

Billy Butler added an RBI single off Samuel Deduno to make it 7-1 before Gordon grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Mauer hit his fourth homer of the season in the third inning, going the other way to left field off Guthrie, who was in the middle of an at-bat against Kurt Suzuki when the game went into a delay in the bottom of the fourth.

Gordon hit a two-run shot to right-center field off Caleb Thielbar in the fifth inning, his 13th homer of the season. Vargas belted his third homer in the bottom of the fifth to score Mauer and get the Twins within 9-4.

Perez's 15th homer of the season came in a two-run seventh. Gordon tripled and scored the other run on Willingham's double.

Arcia's two-run blast in the eighth was his 11th homer of the season and Willingham reached the third deck above left field with his 13th homer in the ninth inning to give the Royals their 12-6 lead.

Earlier, Danny Santana hit a leadoff triple and scored on Vargas' single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Game Notes

Milone's previous shortest start was 2 2/3 innings in a loss to Pittsburgh on July 10, 2013. He was 6-0 in his previous 12 starts prior to Sunday (his teams were 10-2 in those games) ... Butler and Escobar had three hits each.