Royals Score 7 In 2nd, Beat Twins 12-6

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Kansas City Royals scored seven runs in the second inning. Then they really started hitting the ball.

Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez and Josh Willingham homered, and the Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 12-6 on Sunday for their 20th win in their last 25 games.

Kansas City sent 11 batters to the plate in the big second, keyed by two-run singles for Alcides Escobar and Nori Aoki. The Royals then started hitting the ball out of the park after a 54-minute rain delay in the fourth.

Gordon sent one drive into a flower bed in right-center. Perez lined one into the left-field seats, and Willingham's homer traveled an estimated 433 feet into the third deck in left field.

The Royals also increased their AL Central lead to 1 1/2 games over Detroit, which lost 8-1 to Seattle. This is the latest the Royals have been in first place since 2003.

Kansas City's Jeremy Guthrie (9-10) returned to the mound after the delay in the fourth and lasted seven innings, yielding home runs by Joe Mauer and Kennys Vargas.

Oswaldo Arcia also went deep for Minnesota, hitting a two-run drive off Jason Frasor in the eighth for his 11th homer.

But Kansas City's post-rain delay power surge helped it remain in control despite the Twins showing some power of their own.

In his second start with Minnesota since coming over in a trade from Oakland, Tommy Milone (6-4) allowed seven runs in a career-low 1 1/3 innings.

"Awful. The first inning was good, the second one was pretty awful," Milone said. "Couldn't get a good feel, try not to walk guys, left the ball over the plate. It was pretty tough."

The first pitch was delayed 34 minutes in anticipation of a rain shower that never happened. The rain did arrive as the second inning started and got worse until umpires called the players off the field with one out in the bottom of the fourth.

After managing just one run in Saturday night's 4-1 loss, the Royals scored 10 or more for just the third time since June 17.

"With the weather and everything, we were pretty good," Perez said. "We fought through it."

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