Julien’s pinch-hit homer begins 5-run inning; Twins beat Royals 8-4

MINNEAPOLIS — Edouard Julien hit a pinch-hit, solo homer to begin a five-run eighth inning and the Minnesota Twins went on to beat the Kansas City Royals 8-4 on Monday evening.

Carlos Correa tied a career-high with 4 hits from the leadoff spot and Byron Buxton drove in a pair of runs with sacrifice flies for Minnesota, which beat Kansas City for the seventh time in eight video games this season.

Julien, the Canadian rookie second baseman, hit for Kyle Farmer to guide off the eighth and despatched the primary pitch he noticed from Royals reliever Taylor Clarke for a no-doubt homer to proper discipline. It was the primary pinch hit for Julien, who was instructed he was pinch-hitting however didn’t notice it was main off the inning.

“I was sitting on the couch and they yelled, ‘Eddie, you’re leading off,’” Julien stated. “I rushed back to the dugout and I couldn’t find my elbow guard. It was not there. I just picked a random elbow guard, put it on and had no idea what the pitcher had. I just swung.”

Kansas City had tied the sport within the prime of the inning on a solo homer by Nick Pratto.

Clarke (1-3) surrendered 5 runs on 5 hits and retired simply one of many seven batters he confronted.

PHOTOS: Julien’s pinch-hit homer begins 5-run inning; Twins beat Royals 8-4

“We have confidence in him,” Royals supervisor Matt Quatraro stated of Clarke. “We’re going to keep putting him out there in leverage, or any situation we feel good about. He’s in a little bit of a rough patch right now, but we’ve seen what he can do on the positive side and we’re going to keep working with him.”

Clarke held a 2.70 ERA by his first 30 innings this season, however he’s given up 15 earned runs in 5 2/3 over his final seven appearances.

“It was going so good for awhile, and then the wheels completely fell off,” Clarke stated. “It wasn’t even gradual. I don’t know. I wish I had more of an answer for you. I feel like I’m doing everything the same, just the results aren’t there. I have to scrap it over and start from (scratch), from the beginning.”

Minnesota’s Brent Headrick (2-0) allowed Pratto, the primary batter he confronted Monday, to homer to guide off the eighth. He retired the following three batters he confronted, with two strikeouts.

Michael A. Taylor drove within the second run within the eighth as his bunt was fielded by Clarke with nowhere to throw. Max Kepler, Correa and Alex Kirilloff adopted with three straight RBI singles for the Twins.

“We did a good job of adjusting in some of these at-bats, of hitting balls in different spots in the zone,” Twins supervisor Rocco Baldelli stated. “We’ve talked about those things for a little while this year and you can see, that’s what it looks like when you mix in some good swings and just some tough at-bats.”

Royals rookie Maikel Garcia reached base 4 instances and hit the primary pitch of the sport off Joe Ryan for a homer. Kansas City, which had gained two straight in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, have misplaced 11 of their final 12 video games in Minnesota.

BOUNCEBACK JOE

Ryan (9-5) bounced again from his worst outing of the season together with his team-high twelfth high quality begin. He surrendered six runs with a career-high 5 homers allowed in simply three innings in opposition to Atlanta in his earlier begin. Ryan settled in after the leadoff homer and gave up simply six hits, two runs and struck out 9.

TRAINERS ROOM

Royals: C Salvador Perez was out of the lineup with a sore toe after being hit within the foot by a pitch on Sunday. Quatraro stated Perez was accessible off the bench and he was on-deck to pinch-hit when the ultimate out was recorded.

Twins: An MRI confirmed a Grade 2 indirect pressure for 3B Royce Lewis and the restoration is predicted to be about six weeks for Lewis, who’s hit .326 in 26 video games for Minnesota this season. … 2B Jorge Polanco (left hamstring pressure) has continued his working development with out ache or discomfort and he was scheduled to do “high-effort sprints” on Monday.

UP NEXT

RHP Zack Greinke (1-8, 5.15 ERA) will begin Sunday afternoon for Kansas City, with Minnesota countering with RHP Kenta Maeda (1-5, 6.23). Greinke is 5-15 with a 4.79 ERA in 32 profession video games in opposition to the Twins. Maeda has allowed two runs in 10 innings since getting back from the injured checklist.