MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins were a little frustrated after their first seven games, having played about as poorly as possible.

Hitting the ball over the wall was a good way to bounce back.

Kennys Vargas and Kurt Suzuki each hit a two-run homer Thursday, powering the Twins past the Kansas City Royals 8-5 for their first series win this season.

“We have some guys that can hit the ball over the fence,” manager Paul Molitor said. “We all know Target Field can be a challenge in that regard compared to some of the other parks, but we want to have a mixture: guys that hit for average, guys that can run the bases and we always welcome hitting them over the fence.”

Lorenzo Cain put the Royals in front with his two-run shot in the first inning, but starter Jason Vargas (1-1) was shelled. He gave up 10 hits and a walk, failing to get an out in the fourth and leaving with a 5-3 deficit.

Minnesota’s Vargas sure had his Kansas City foe, no relation, figured out. The burly switch-hitter hit a line drive in the second off the ribbon scoreboard that serves as the facade of the second deck above left field to tie the game.

“You have to tip your cap. You miss inside, and he’s still able turn on it and keep it fair,” Jason Vargas said. “After that they were just able to bleed us out.”

With Oswaldo Arcia’s two-run home run Wednesday, the Twins went deep three times in two days after hitting only two homers in their first seven games. They’re still last in the American League, but the productive swings by Vargas were a good sign.

In the third inning, two batters after a groundout gave Joe Mauer the first of his three RBIs, Kennys Vargas crushed a full-count changeup to the left-center gap that Cain grabbed with a smooth lunging catch to limit the damage.

Vargas has 10 career home runs, but this was only his second as a right-hander. That’s his natural side, but he has so far displayed more power hitting left. Vargas played first base Thursday for the first time this season.

“It’s a little bit different, but it’s my job,” Vargas said.

Tommy Milone (2-0) did his job, despite the rough start, by logging 5 1/3 innings and keeping the lead.

Cain went 3 for 4 with three runs and three RBIs and Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez each had two hits for the Royals, but Milone minimized their threats.

He allowed seven hits and three walks before ceding to five relievers. Brian Duensing gave up two runs in a rocky start to the ninth, but Glen Perkins got the last two outs for his second save.

The season-high 14 hits sure came in handy. Five Twins had two or more hits, including Torii Hunter who went 3 for 5. The Twins even spoiled the perfect run by the Royals bullpen, after 23 1/3 scoreless innings to start the season.

“The guys had my back today, especially scoring right after they scored in the first inning. You kind of get that breath of fresh air to go back out there,” Milone said.

CAIN DO

Cain has two homers this year, after going deep only 17 times in 358 major league games entering the season. With his speed, brilliant defense and batting average that’s up to .429, the MVP of the American League championship series has fast become one of Kansas City’s most indispensable players.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: Christian Colon gave Omar Infante his first break at second base, but Perez remained in the lineup at catcher for the ninth straight time despite the afternoon start following the night game. Manager Ned Yost said he wanted Perez’s hitting potential on a day with Alex Gordon resting and Alex Rios out indefinitely. Yost said Perez could get a day off this weekend.

Twins: Casey Fien has showed no lingering effects of the shoulder stiffness that limited him to one inning over the first seven games. After pitching a perfect eighth Wednesday, the right-hander was sharp again with a four-up, four-down performance with a tidy 13 pitches.

UP NEXT

The Royals will return home for a three-game series against Oakland starting Friday. Left-hander Jeremy Guthrie is scheduled to pitch for the Royals, after winning his season debut while completing seven innings on the road against the Los Angeles Angels. Right-hander Sonny Gray will start for the Athletics.

The Twins will host Cleveland for a three-game series beginning Friday, when AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber pitches for the Indians and Mike Pelfrey takes the mound for the Twins. Pelfrey’s last start at Target Field was nearly a year ago, on May 1.

— Associated Press —

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kansas City became the last team in the majors to lose this season, as Kyle Gibson pitched into the seventh inning and Oswaldo Arcia hit a two-run homer for the Minnesota Twins in a 3-1 victory over the Royals on Wednesday night.

The Royals (7-1) were chasing the 2003 team’s 9-0 start as the best in franchise history, but Gibson (1-1) used 12 groundball outs and three strikeouts to keep the highest-scoring team in the majors quiet for a night.

The Twins (2-6) went 1-8 to begin the 1994 season, the only other time in the club’s 55-year history they started with seven losses in their first eight games. Glen Perkins pitched a perfect ninth for his first save.

Edinson Volquez (1-1) struck out seven in 7 2/3 innings, with five hits and one walk allowed. He loaded the bases with no outs in the first, but he escaped with only Brian Dozier’s sacrifice fly as the damage.

Arcia’s two-strike, two-out drive into the seats above right-center field in the fourth, though, hurt Volquez. Trevor Plouffe’s single came right before that.

Lorenzo Cain bounced into a double play after consecutive singles to start the game, and Salvador Perez grounded into an inning-ending turn-two by the Twins in the second. Alcides Escobar had three of the nine hits against Gibson and Alex Gordon drove in a run with a two-out single in the fourth inning, but the right-hander didn’t walk anybody after issuing five free passes in his first start.

Gibson, who failed to finish the fourth at Detroit last week, improved to 4-0 in four career starts with a 1.38 ERA against Kansas City.

Manager Ned Yost decided to keep Cain in center field and replace Alex Rios in right field with Jarrod Dyson, only the second bench player to appear in a game so far for the Royals along with Paulo Orlando. Outfielder Terrance Gore was recalled from Double-A Northwest Arkansas for depth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: Rios said he wasn’t surprised by the diagnosis, considering how hard the pitch was and the placement of his hand against the knob of the bat. He passed a strength test on his hand, one encouraging sign for a recovery that could take about a month.

“I’m going to do my best to do what I can to shorten up the time. It’s going to depend on the bone itself, but I’m going to work on everything that I can to help the healing process a little more,” he said.

Twins: Right-hander Ricky Nolasco, seven days into his stint on the 15-day disabled list, was cleared for some long toss to test his inflamed elbow. “So far so good,” general manager Terry Ryan said, asked whether Nolasco could be ready after the 15-day minimum. “Whether it’s 15, if it’s 18 or if it’s 20, we just want to make sure he’s right.”

UP NEXT

The Royals will send left-hander Jason Vargas to the mound for the series finale on Thursday afternoon to face Twins left-hander Tommy Milone.

— Associated Press —

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Kansas City right fielder Alex Rios is out indefinitely after suffering a broken bone in his left hand when he was hit by a pitch in Minnesota earlier this week.

The team said Tuesday that Rios has a non-displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal in his left hand. He was hit by J.R. Graham’s first pitch in the eighth. He eventually scored but was removed as a precaution in the bottom of the inning and sent for X-rays.

The team said no timetable has been set in terms of his return.

Rios was batting .321 with eight RBIs and a home run through Kansas City’s 7-0 start to the season.

— Associated Press —

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kansas City has picked up right where it left off. Behind some torrid hitting and an impenetrable bullpen, the Royals are the only unbeaten team left in the majors.

Danny Duffy pitched into the seventh inning and Kendrys Morales homered in a 12-3 romp over the Minnesota Twins on Monday, moving the defending AL champions to 7-0 for the second-best start in Kansas City’s history behind the 2003 club that won nine in a row to begin the season.

“There’s a great mix here of young and veteran players that feed off each other,” Morales said. “The young players got a lot of energy, which helps the experienced players. It’s a real good clubhouse.”

Detroit was the only other undefeated team left until a 5-4 loss at Pittsburgh earlier in the day.

Duffy (1-0) went 6 1/3 innings, giving up three runs. He is 4-1 with a 2.37 ERA in his career against the Twins and is undefeated in four starts at Target Field.

“It’s a long season,” Duffy said. “Obviously you hear that every day, but we’re just kind of keeping it all in front of us.”

The Twins were better off with a put-it-all-behind-them approach.

“We didn’t play Twins baseball. I don’t know what we played. Bad News Bears baseball, I guess,” right fielder Torii Hunter said. “Just got to do better.”

The Twins lost their fourth straight home opener, though they still packed the place with an over-capacity crowd of 40,123 on a 61-degree day. Hunter tipped his helmet to acknowledge the standing ovation during his first at-bat, but the cheers were scant the rest of the afternoon.

The Twins used four pitchers in a six-run eighth by the Royals, who did their damage on only two singles to accompany three walks, two hit batters, an error and a passed ball. Shortstop Danny Santana let a bases-loaded grounder bounce out of his glove with no outs.

Hunter was charged with a throwing error in the sixth, too, letting a run score. New manager Paul Molitor has so far had his hands full.

“We’re trying to find a way to put an offense together that’s a little more consistent. So far it really hasn’t clicked too well,” Molitor said.

The Royals have sure been rolling. Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain on his 29th birthday and Eric Hosmer each drove in two runs for Kansas City, which had five players tally two hits apiece. Manager Ned Yost was asked afterward what has stood out from his team’s strong start.

“Their energy. Their focus. Their intensity,” Yost said. “They’re just a real confident group.”

The bullpen hasn’t been scored on yet, either, with 21 strikeouts in 19 innings.

POWER SURGE

Morales, who failed to hit a home run in 67 plate appearances at Target Field during his stint with the Twins last summer, sent an 0-1 pitch from Trevor May (0-1) in the second inning into the upper deck above right-center field.

The scary part for the rest of the league is that the Royals, last in the majors in home runs last season, have gone deep 10 times already. Salvador Perez has nine RBIs and Alex Rios and Cain each have eight. The Twins have 14 total RBIs; no one has more than two.

NO REST YET

One of Yost’s stated priorities this season was to limit Perez’s workload, after the All-Star catcher’s production waned during the playoffs last year. He hasn’t had a day off yet, along with every other regular but left fielder Alex Gordon.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: Rios was hit on the left hand by J.R. Graham’s first pitch in the eighth. He eventually scored but was removed as a precaution in the bottom of the inning and sent for X-rays. Yost said he was encouraged by the strength test Rios took and believed he would be all right.

Twins: RHP Casey Fien, who has logged only one inning this season because of shoulder stiffness, was available to pitch.

UP NEXT

There is no game Tuesday, with the series resuming Wednesday night.

Edinson Volquez will take the mound, looking to match a sparkling debut with the Royals. The right-hander has faced the Twins only once, in 2007 when Joe Mauer homered against him in a no-decision at the Metrodome.

Kyle Gibson will start for the Twins, coming off a rough first turn at Detroit. Gibson has beaten the Royals more than any other team, carrying a 3-0 record and 1.40 ERA in three starts against them.

— Associated Press —

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals completed another three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels. Unlike last October, there was no champagne sprayed in the clubhouse — just a fervent resolve to prove that last year’s trip to the World Series wasn’t a fluke.

Alcides Escobar and Alex Rios hit two-run doubles, Salvador Perez homered and the defending AL champions extended their season-opening win streak to six games with a 9-2 victory on Sunday.

“To start the year the way that we have is exciting and it’s fun to see. You just keep it going for as long as you can,” manager Ned Yost said. “Over the course of 162 games, it’s hard to maintain over long stretches. But we’re firing on all cylinders right now in all phases of our game.

“We’re hitting in the clutch and we’re hitting for power. Our defense again today was fantastic, so was the starting pitching, and our bullpen came in and did a great job. To come in here and play as well as we did against them was encouraging.”

The winning streak is the Royals’ second-longest to open a season. They won their first nine in 2003 under first-year manager Tony Pena, but finished only four games over .500 and third in the AL Central.

The Royals and Detroit are the only unbeaten teams left in the majors.

“We’re just playing good baseball as a team,” third baseman Mike Moustakas said. “Everyone is doing their job, no one’s trying to do too much, and we’ve been finding ways to win.”

“Everything’s rolling pretty good for us right now,” he said.

Albert Pujols hit his 522nd home run, moving past Ted Williams, Willie McCovey and Frank Thomas for sole possession of 18th on the career list. The solo drive off Royals ace Yordano Ventura (2-0) landed in the lower seats in the left-field corner.

“Obviously, it’s a great accomplishment, man, but it’s really disappointing,” Pujols said. “We got swept by a great ballclub. I’ve told you guys my whole career, that at the end of my career I’m going to enjoy it a little bit more. But when I’m playing baseball, my goal is to try to help this ballclub to win.”

Ventura, coming off a 10-1 win at Chicago in which he left in the seventh after 81 pitches because of a cramp in his thumb, allowed two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings Sunday before coming out with another cramp — this one in his right calf.

After Pujols’ homer, Ventura didn’t allow another hit until Mike Trout’s one-out single in the sixth. Moments later, Trout slid across the plate on Pujols’ double, which center fielder Lorenzo Cain bobbled for the Royals’ first error of the season.

Ventura, who was backing up home plate on the play, had some words with Trout. Both dugouts and bullpens emptied, but no punches were thrown.

“I was just playing my game,” Trout said. “I just got a base hit, I got to first base and he was staring at me. I didn’t think I did anything wrong — and then he got in my face. I’m not trying to get in any fights or anything, and I’m just trying to play baseball.”

Yost, understandably, defended his pitcher.

“He pitches with a lot of emotion. He’s a real intense competitor, and he got fired up there,” Yost said.

C.J. Wilson (1-1) allowed seven runs — six earned — and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings after pitching eight innings of two-hit ball in a 2-0 victory at Seattle last Tuesday. He took the loss in the finale of last year’s AL Division Series, which completed the Royals’ three-game sweep.

“We were able to put some good swings against him in that playoff game, but he’s a good pitcher and he definitely made some adjustments against us today,” Moustakas said. “We had a report on him that said he was throwing a lot of fastballs, going at guys and getting a lot of first-pitch swings, so we tried to get a good pitch to hit early in the count and get a knock.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Angels: RF Kole Calhoun, who homered and drove in three runs in Saturday night’s 6-4 loss, got the day off to rest a sore calf. “His calf is a little bit tight, so we’re just going to take a precautionary day,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s been nursing it for a couple of days, and we just don’t want it to go in the wrong direction right now.”

UP NEXT

Royals: LHP Danny Duffy makes his second start of the season in the opener of a three-game series at Minnesota, after giving up five runs over five innings last Wednesday in a no-decision at Chicago.

Angels: RHP Matt Shoemaker, coming off a 5-3 victory at Seattle in which he allowed three runs over six innings, makes his second start of the season on Monday at Texas. He is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in three career starts against the Rangers.

— Associated Press —