The Twins entered Friday’s game with a 10-game homer streak, hitting 17 home runs — tops in Major League Baseball — during that stretch. Max Kepler ensured immediately that that streak would remain intact.
“I had a clear mind,” Kepler said of swinging at the first pitch out of the hand of Kansas City starter Jordan Lyles.
Kepler’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the first was one of three on the day for the Twins in an 8-6 win over the Royals on Friday evening at Target Field. Along with Kepler’s shot, Jorge Polanco’s 100th career blast — a three-run jack — and Jose Miranda’s third of the season, Joey Gallo just missed his team-leading eighth, settling for a triple instead, and Byron Buxton was just feet away from one of his own.
The power surge is a welcomed sign for the Twins (16-11), who have scored 21 runs in their past three games after a slow offensive start. The home runs were part of a day full of good plate appearances.
“It’s coming from laying off the pitches we don’t want to swing at that we might have been swinging at earlier in the year, but lately we haven’t,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the team’s recent offensive success. Forcing starters out of the game early. Big swings, but also controlling the zone.”
In the second, the Twins worked three walks and came away with a pair of runs. Two innings later, after Gallo tripled to lead off the inning, Michael A. Taylor dropped down a bunt that a group of four Royals fielders converged on. Taylor raced to first, where no one was covering. And then, finding second base free of fielders, too, made it safely there for a double.
Taylor said he didn’t realize that nobody was at second until he heard first base coach Hank Conger yelling at him to “go two, go two.”
“That’s not normally how that happens,” he said of his first-ever bunted double.
Despite the big day at the plate, the Twins were actually outhit by the Royals, who managed to hang around throughout the game, clawing their way back from an 8-2 deficit and scoring four unanswered runs.
The Royals (6-21) scored six runs off Twins starter Pablo López, who pitched into the seventh inning and was critical of his execution. But he walked away with the win nonetheless.
“I had a couple of rough innings, shaky innings. But they came out and scored all those runs for me, so it was a matter of time for this offense to show up the way they are doing,” López said. “It’s fun to see, fun to be a part of, and they’re going to give us a lot of wins.”
Things got even tenser after his departure when, with a pair of outs in the ninth inning, reliever Jorge López allowed a pair of singles and hit a batter. He was in for the save with Jhoan Duran away from the team at an immigration appointment.
He did eventually recover, though, striking out Nick Pratto to end the game and make winners of the Twins for the fifth time this season against the Royals.
“Pitching has carried us all season. But I think we always knew we had a powerful offense and could score a lot of runs,” Taylor said. “It’s nice to see things clicking. Guys are having quality at-bats and just getting it to the next guy. It’s been a lot of fun.”
