MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Andrew Benintendi hit two homers, Salvador Perez homered and drove in three runs, and the Kansas City Royals cruised to an 11-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.
Danny Duffy (4-1) continued his strong start to the season in helping the AL Central-leading Royals bounce back from Friday night’s 9-1 loss. He allowed one run and two hits in seven innings, striking out seven.
Kansas City’s 16-9 start is good for a .640 winning percentage, which is the third-best mark through 25 games in team history.
Matt Shoemaker (1-3) couldn’t sustain Minnesota’s momentum after back-to-back wins. He gave up a career-high nine runs and tied his career-high with eight earned runs allowed in just 3 1/3 innings.
”It’s going to turn,” Shoemaker said after his ERA rose to 7.83. ”It’s going to change. I’m going to keep fighting to get better. It’s going to happen. It’s just frustrating.”
Alex Kiriloff homered for the second straight day for Minnesota and Nelson Cruz added his 425th career homer.
Kiriloff’s homer in the seventh ended Duffy’s streak of 17 straight innings without allowing an earned run.
”He was about as sharp as we’ve seen him,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. ”We’ve seen him a decent amount over the last couple of years, and he pitched well. We have to do more, I think we have to force the issue and keep him in the zone and get on top of some of those fastballs better. But he did a good job.”
Duffy started the day with the best ERA in the majors (0.39), ahead of Jacob deGrom’s 0.51 mark. Duffy has allowed one earned run in his first four starts this season and exited this game with his ERA at 0.60.
Twins’ first baseman Miguel Sano (right hamstring strain) will stay in Minnesota with the team as the Triple-A St. Paul team goes on the road to begin its season. Manager Rocco Baldelli said Sano is doing well physically, but he wants to see Sano face live pitching before returning him from the injured list.
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