“Kub was able to get the bat head through the zone,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “That was nice to see. It gave us a little bit of a lead, and Boof was the story after that.”
The Royals didn’t get their first hit until Ross Gload’s one-out single in the fifth. Callaspo had a two-out single, but Bonser stranded both runners by retiring Mark Grudzielanek on a routine fly to center.
Butler extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games with a one-out single in the sixth but got no farther.
The Twins extended their lead to 2-0 in the seventh after Grudzielanek couldn’t come up with Kubel’s grounder to the right-side hole. Brendan Harris followed with a hit-and-run single into right.
Denard Span’s sharp grounder into center scored Kubel and finished Tomko.
Nick Punto’s bunt single against reliever Ramon Ramirez loaded the bases before Ramirez struck out Carlos Gomez. Hillman then summoned lefty Ron Mahay to face switch-hitting Matt Tolbert.
Mahay stranded all three runners by retiring Tolbert on a pop to short and striking out Joe Mauer. That kept the game close, at least.
“Sometimes, you’ve just got to tip it to the pitcher,” Butler said, “but only so much. Then it’s (a problem) offensively. We’re going to try to fix it. That’s all we can do.”
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