MINNEAPOLIS | Alex Gordon&#8217;s season-closing surge &#8212; he has hits in 10 straight games since returning from the disabled list &#8212; might be the result of a simple adjustment in the batter&#8217;s box.</p><p>&#8220;I raised my hands a little bit,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and I&#8217;ve got all of my weight on my back leg. So I&#8217;m staying balanced. I&#8217;m coming down on the ball rather than going up.</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s working a lot better.&#8221;</p><p>The numbers agree &#8212; and suggest the new approach is adding a little pop. Gordon has four doubles and two homers in his 10-game streak and has boosted his average to .261.</p><p>&#8220;The big thing is his hands,&#8221; hitting coach Mike Barnett said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve talked a lot about this. But the changes that you make, a lot of times, it takes a while to get to the point where they feel natural. To me, the biggest reason (for his improvement) is getting his hands up.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s able to work down through the baseball much better. He doesn&#8217;t work up underneath balls as much. The other thing is he&#8217;s back. His hands are up. And he&#8217;s got a good little rhythm going at the plate right now.&#8221;</p><p>While the gains are modest, Gordon&#8217;s key numbers all show increases over his production last season as a rookie. His on-base percentage, thanks to a club-leading 65 walks, is up to .352 over last year&#8217;s .314.</p><p>Gordon&#8217;s OPS+, one of the favored new measuring sticks, is up to 106 from 87. That stat takes the combination of on-base percentage and slugging percentage, adjusts it for the park and league, and calculates it against the league average.</p><p>A 100 score is average.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s not so pull-oriented,&#8221; manager Trey Hillman said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen him drive the ball a lot more to left-center since he&#8217;s come back. If he&#8217;ll utilize that part of the field every now and then, it keeps his bat through the zone longer.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">On to Minnesota</span></strong></p><p>Catcher John Buck admits the Royals were watching the scoreboard Wednesday night to see whether Minnesota could pull closer to first-place Chicago in the American League Central Division race.</p><p>&#8220;We wanted to know what type of games we were going to play this weekend,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re having fun here, but we wouldn&#8217;t mind playing some meaningful games. We&#8217;d like to be involved in that semiplayoff atmosphere.&#8221;</p><p>The Twins got to within one-half game of the White Sox with a 3-2 victory Wednesday, and Minnesota pulled one-half game ahead Thursday with a 7-6 win in 10 innings.</p><p>Buck likened the situation to two years ago, when the Royals closed the season at Detroit. The Tigers needed to win just one of three games to capture the division crown, but the Royals swept the series.</p><p>Minnesota slipped past Detroit, which settled for a wild-card berth.</p><p>&#8220;That series was fun,&#8221; Buck recalled. &#8220;Because of the situation, it gave that little bit more intensity to the series.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">High quality</span></strong></p><p>Zack Greinke is tied with two veteran lefties &#8212; Cleveland&#8217;s Cliff Lee and Chicago&#8217;s Mark Buehrle &#8212; for the AL lead with 23 &#8220;quality starts.&#8221;</p><p>The key difference is Greinke is done for the season. Lee and Buehrle are each scheduled for one more outing: They will oppose one another Sunday in Chicago.</p><p>The Royals opted against bringing Greinke back in Sunday&#8217;s season finale on his usual four days&#8217; rest because his workload this season is already 80 1/3 innings more than 2007. So he finishes at 13-10 with a 3.47 ERA in 32 starts.