Twins rally from early deficit, take series from Royals

Ryan Jeffers went 2-for-3 with two home runs and three RBIs and the Minnesota Twins rallied for a 7-6 win over the Kansas City Royals on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis.

Carlos Correa also finished with three RBIs on a tiebreaking, bases-clearing triple for the Twins, who earned a series victory with three wins in four games against Kansas City. Max Kepler went 1-for-2 with an RBI for Minnesota.

Bobby Witt Jr. went 2-for-5 with a double and three RBIs for the Royals. M.J. Melendez and Vinnie Pasquantino homered.

Twins left-hander Caleb Thielbar (2-1) earned the victory in relief. He got the final out of the sixth inning as the replacement for starter Chris Paddack, who allowed four runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Royals right-hander Chris Stratton (2-3) took the loss out of the bullpen. He gave up four runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning. In his first start since May 5, Daniel Lynch IV was charged with three runs (two earned) on five hits in five innings.

Twins closer Jhoan Duran collected his ninth save. He gave up two unearned runs on one hit and one walk but got the final three outs in the ninth.

Minnesota overcame a 4-0 deficit to rally for the win. The Twins scored two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and four in the sixth to seize the lead for good.

Pasquantino gave the Royals a 2-0 lead in the first with a 417-foot homer to right-center, his sixth of the season.

Witt made it 3-0 with an RBI double in the third and Melendez provided a solo shot, his fifth homer of 2024, to increase the Royals' advantage to 4-0 in the fourth.

The Twins pulled within 4-2 on Jeffers' two-run shot in the bottom of the fourth.

Jeffers struck again, this time on a solo shot, to cut the Twins' deficit to 4-3 in the fifth. It was his team-leading 12th homer of the season.

In the sixth, Kepler evened the score at 4-4 with an RBI single to left.

Correa provided the game-changing hit later in the inning. He stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and ripped a triple to right.

Witt finished the scoring with a two-run single in the ninth.

--Field Level Media