Nelson Velazquez went 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBIs and the Kansas City Royals pulled away for a 6-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night in Minneapolis.
Salvador Perez doubled, homered and drove in two runs for Kansas City, which snapped a three-game skid. Bobby Witt Jr. went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Jose Miranda drove in Minnesota’s only run. Willi Castro went 3-for-4 with a double for the Twins, who lost for only the second time in their past eight games.
Royals right-hander Seth Lugo (9-1) won his fourth straight start. He allowed one run on six hits in six innings, struck out five and walked two.
Twins right-hander Bailey Ober (5-3) gave up six runs on nine hits in five innings, recording four strikeouts and no walks.
Relievers Angel Zerpa, Will Smith and Carlos Hernandez combined to pitch three scoreless innings for the Royals.
The Twins grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Castro hit a one-out double to right, advanced to third on a single by Carlos Santana and scored moments later on Miranda’s sacrifice fly to right.
Kansas City stormed back with four runs in the top of the third.
Witt started the scoring with an RBI single to right. Perez made it 2-1 in the next at-bat with an RBI double to left that scored Witt.
Two batters later, Velazquez drilled a two-run homer to increase the Royals’ lead to 4-1. He worked a full count before hitting a 437-foot blast to center.
Kansas City added a pair of solo shots in the fifth to make it 6-1.
Perez started the inning with a 431-foot blast to center, his 10th homer of the season.
One out later, Velazquez followed with a 394-foot shot to left-center field for his second homer of the game and his seventh of the season. The 25-year-old matched his career high of two homers in a game, which he accomplished once in 2022 and once in 2023.
–Field Level Media