The Kansas City bullpen picked up starter Danny Duffy when he labored in his return from Tommy John surgery, keeping the Minnesota Twins guessing Wednesday night and sending the Royals to a 5-2 victory and series win.

Duffy struck out seven in 3 2-3 innings in his first outing since May 2012, but needed 93 pitches to get that far. He left trailing 2-1 on another humid night at Kauffman Stadium.

Louis Coleman (2-0) and three more Kansas City relievers managed to navigate the next 4 1-3 innings, and All-Star closer Greg Holland worked around a single in the ninth for his 30th save.

Royals pitchers combined to strike out 16.

Alex Gordon homered off Samuel Deduno (7-5) to tie the game once Duffy left. Alcides Escobar hit a go-ahead single later in the fourth, Lorenzo Cain hit an RBI single in the fifth, and Gordon drove in another run in the seventh with the 200th double of his career.

Deduno, who hadn’t lost in his last four starts, allowed four runs on 12 hits in 5 2-3 innings. He didn’t walk a batter for the first time this season.

Minnesota made sure that Duffy would work hard in his return to a big league mound.

Brian Dozier, whose leadoff homer set the tone in a 7-0 win Tuesday night, opened the game with a triple off the young left-hander. Brian Colabello worked a two-out walk before Ryan Doumit delivered an RBI single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.

Doumit would leave the game in the fourth inning after feeling nauseous.

The Royals answered in the third when Brett Hayes, who’s filling in at catcher while Salvador Perez is out with a concussion, lined a double off the third-base bag. Deduno recovered to retire the next two Royals, but Escobar drove in Hayes with a tying single.

The Twins pulled back ahead in the fourth when Clete Thomas worked a walk and Dozier hit a two-out double that also knocked Duffy from the game. But the Royals answered again in the bottom half on Gordon’s homer – which snapped a 1-for-23 skid – and a series of singles by Miguel Tejada, Hayes and Escobar, the last of them allowing Tejada to score the go-ahead run.

Kansas City took some of the pressure off its bullpen in the fifth.

Hot-hitting Eric Hosmer doubled to lead it off, and Billy Butler put runners on the corners with a single. Cain followed with an RBI single that bounced off Deduno and into right field, bringing the Twins training staff out from the dugout to check on the pitcher.

He wound up staying in the game until getting two outs in the sixth.

The damage was already done the way the Royals bullpen was pitching, though. Coleman retired five batters to run his streak of scoreless innings to 16 1-3, and Tim Collins struck out the only three he faced. Aaron Crow escaped a jam of his own creation in the seventh, and Kelvin Herrera left runners that he had walked on second and third to end the eighth.

Holland ensured there would be little drama in the ninth.

— Associated Press —

Andrew Albers still remembers exactly what he was thinking about as he drove the 40 hours from Arizona to Florida for one last chance at being a big league ballplayer.

”I just wanted a shot,” he said.

The left-hander made the most of his tryout with the Minnesota Twins that day two years ago, earning a minor league contract.

On Tuesday night, Albers got an even bigger shot at realizing his dreams when he made his major league debut against the Kansas City Royals.

Just like he did back then, Albers made the most of it. He allowed four hits while pitching into the ninth inning, leading the Twins to a 7-0 victory at Kauffman Stadium.

”It’s hard to put into words, but it was special to go out and have that kind of performance in your debut,” he said. ”Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to get much better from there.”

The first big leaguer from Saskatchewan in more than 20 years, Albers only allowed a collection of singles to one of the hottest teams in baseball, and at one point retired 15 straight.

He ended up two outs shy of his third straight complete game dating back to his days with Triple-A Rochester, and the first shutout in a big league debut since Detroit’s Andy Van Hekken did it in 2002. Casey Fien wound up finishing it up when Albers began to labor in the ninth inning.

”I didn’t want to go out there and take him out,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said, ”but he was completely out of gas there at the end. Wow that was fun to watch.”

The Twins took most of the pressure off Albers with a big night at the plate. Brian Dozier homered and drove in three runs, and Justin Morneau and Chris Colabello also went deep.

All that damage came against Shields (6-8), who even balked in a run during his worst start in nearly two years.

The former All-Star gave up three runs in the first inning and never settled down the rest of the evening, laboring through six innings on an uncomfortably humid night.

”Sometimes this can happen,” Shields said, ”but I’ve got to do a better job.”

The Twins hammered Shields right from the start. Dozier’s homer was the first leadoff shot for Minnesota since Denard Span went deep against the Phillies on June 12, 2012.

Jamey Carroll promptly worked a walk and Morneau, who came into the game hitting .371 against Shields, added a two-run shot later in the first to stake the Twins to a 3-0 lead.

Shields continued to struggle with his command in the second inning, walking Chris Herrmann to lead it off and then plunking Clete Thomas. Doug Bernier laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both runners up, and Herrmann scored on Dozier’s sacrifice fly.

Colabello hit his third homer of the year in the fourth, and then plunged Shields into more trouble with a leadoff single in the sixth. Herrmann added a single to put runners on the corners, and a balk by Shields on a pickoff move to third base brought in another run.

Dozier drove in his third run of the game with a single to make it 7-0.

It was the first time Shields allowed at least seven runs since Aug. 21, 2011, when he was still with Tampa Bay. The three homers he allowed were the most since June 2 of the same year.

”He just had trouble getting the ball down,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”Command was the issue most of the night for him. After the second inning it got a little better.”

Albers couldn’t have gotten a whole lot better.

The first big leaguer from Saskatchewan since 1991, when Terry Puhl retired, Albers showed promise when he was drafted by the Padres in 2008.

But he needed Tommy John surgery the next year and was released before showing what he could do with a rebuilt elbow, finally ending up with the Quebec Capitales of the Can-Am League when he was healthy enough to pitch again.

Albers failed to impress in a pair of big league tryouts in Arizona in 2011, but he was willing to drive at his own expense to Florida for another try with the Twins.

His only other option was to head home to North Battleford and get on with life, Albers showed just enough to earn himself a job.

”For a guy who’s not a prototypical prospect, for them to stick with me the way they have, it’s pretty special,” said Albers, who was 11-5 with a 2.86 ERA at Rochester before getting called upon to replace fellow Canadian Scott Diamond in the Twins’ rotation.

”You dream about this,” he said, ”but you never know if it’ll actually happen.”

— Associated Press —