Royals set season high for hits in win over Twins, clinch rare series victory at home

Manager Matt Quatraro awoke Saturday still thinking about the Royals’ walk-off win the night before.

“I watched a couple of the highlights of it today,” Quatraro said before Saturday’s game. “It was cool. I’m excited by it. I want to make sure that the guys feed off of that but also turn the attention to today.”

Mission accomplished, as the Royals won 10-7 at Kauffman Stadium, pounding out a season-best 18 hits in front of an announced crowd of 20,643. The Royals will go for their first three-game sweep of the season on Sunday.

“We haven’t won as many series as possible, and now we’ve had two really good offensive outings and we have a good chance at a sweep tomorrow,” said starting pitcher Jordan Lyles, 2-12. “We got Ryan (Yarbrough) throwing the ball tomorrow — that’s been going really well since he’s been back — and sweeps are hard to do in the major leagues. And they’re a good team.

“I’m not sure where they’re at in the standings, but we have a chance to sweep them tomorrow.”

The Twins, 54-52, are in first place in the American League Central, but the Royals jumped on Minnesota starter Bailey Ober early, scoring six runs on nine hits in the first three innings.

However, the Twins got three runs in the fourth against Lyles.

José Cuas replaced Lyles in the sixth inning and allowed two runs before exiting with runners on first and second. However, Dylan Coleman got Carlos Correa to ground into a difficult double play to end the threat.

The Royals’ lead was down to 6-5, but Bobby Witt Jr. — one day after his walk-off winner — opened the home half of the sixth with a single, took second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a fly to center and scored on Salvador Perez’s single.

The Royals, 31-75, added three more runs in the seventh inning to make it 10-5 and were on their way to a second straight win over the division-leading Twins.

Here’s a look back at Saturday’s game...

Key moment

The Royals got some much-needed insurance courtesy of two triples in the seventh inning.

Center fielder Kyle Isbel, who had a four-hit game, opened the frame with a single and right fielder Drew Waters followed with a triple to right-center field.

After an out, third baseman Maikel Garcia smashed an RBI single to right that gave the Royals a 9-5 advantage. Witt then delivered an RBI triple off the fence in right-center and the Royals were on their way to a victory.

Player of the game

Witt is simply red hot for the Royals. After a four-hit, six RBI game Friday night, he had another four-hit game.

Witt said he washed away Friday’s game when he stepped into the batter’s box in the first inning. After nearly being hit by a pitch, Witt hit a home run in his first at-bat.

“I tried to just remove as much as possible and then just flip the page and get ready for the next day,” Witt said. “And I feel like ... in the past, you can see guys that have great games and then the next day have a bad game or vice versa, have a bad game and have a great game. So just trying to just stay pitch by pitch at-bat by at-bat as much as possible and just keep that same positive mindset.”

In the first two games of the series against the Twins, Witt is 8 for 10 with four extra-base hits, four runs scored and nine RBIs. The Royals said Witt is the eighth player in franchise history with consecutive four-hit games and the first since Nori Aoki (Sept. 15-16, 2014).

Witt is the first Royals player with nine RBIs in a two-game span Mike Moustakas (Sept. 11-12, 2015).

“It’s fun to watch,” Quatraro said of Witt’s hot streak. “You’ve got to stop and appreciate that when you see it, because you know how hard it is to be that good for an extended period of time and driving balls to all parts of the park. He made some nice plays defensively, too, tonight.

“We all know his physical ability, and then when you get to see it come out, it’s fun to watch.”

Stat of note

The Royals clinched their first series win since taking two of three from the Dodgers at Kauffman Stadium on June 30-July 2. The Royals won just their third home series this season. The other was when they won three of four from the White Sox in May.

Kansas City will go for its first three-game winning streak of the season on Sunday.

Highlights

MJ Melendez, playing in left field, threw out Kepler at the plate in the second inning with this strong throw.

Massey clubbed a 415-foot homer in the second inning. This was a no-doubter.

What’s next: The Royals will face the Twins for the final time in 2023 on Sunday. Ryan Yarbrough (3-5) gets the ball for the Royals and he’ll face Kenta Maeda (2-5). First pitch is at 1:10 p.m.