Kansas City Royals vs Minnesota Twins Match Player Stats On Aug 02, 2019

Nelson Cruz hit a home run, doubled twice off the wall in right-center and drove in five runs, while Max Kepler had two doubles, two walks and scored three times to lead the Minnesota Twins to a wild 11-9 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals on Friday.

Jorge Polanco went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and Eddie Rosario went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored for the Twins, who remained three games in front of the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central.

Trevor May (4-3) recorded one out to pick up the win. Sergio Romo got the final four outs, including two strikeouts, to pick up his first save with Minnesota and 18th of the season.

Hunter Dozier hit two home runs and Cam Gallagher also homered and had two hits for Kansas City, which lost its fourth straight game. Whit Merrifield, Cheslor Cuthbert and Jorge Soler each had a double and three hits for the Royals, who finished with 15 hits.

Richard Lovelady (0-1) allowed two runs in 1 1/3 innings of relief for Kansas City.

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in the first when Merrifield opened the game with a single, stole second and scored on a single by Soler.

Minnesota took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first when Kepler doubled and scored on Cruz's 27th home run of the season, a 412-foot line drive into the second deck in left-center.

The Twins extended their lead to 4-1 an inning later when Luis Arraez opened the inning with a walk and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ehire Adrianza. Kepler then came through with an RBI double.

Kansas City came back to take a 5-4 lead with a pair of runs in the fourth, including a leadoff home run by Dozier, and solo homers by Gallagher and Dozier in the fifth. It marked the first multi-home run game of Dozier's career.

The Twins regained the lead, 6-5, in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Cruz off the top of the wall in right-center and an RBI single by Rosario.

The Royals tied it in the sixth on an RBI double by Humberto Arteaga, driving in Cuthbert, who had doubled, before the Twins took the lead for good with a five-run seventh highlighted by a two-run double by Cruz and RBI singles by Miguel Sano and Castro.

Kansas City cut it to 11-9 in the eighth on RBI singles by Bubba Starling and Gallagher and a throwing error by Sano.

--Field Level Media