Josh Willingham

Joe Mauer is back in the lineup for the Minnesota Twins after missing six games for the birth of his twin girls. Slugger Josh Willingham may not be all that far behind him.

The Minnesota Twins found all kinds of opportunities to win this game, and the series, against the Kansas City Royals. Chris Parmelee was in the middle of most of the misses. David Lough hit three doubles, then launched a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning that gave the Royals enough to beat the Twins 9-8 on Sunday.

It started with a double by Alex Gordon, gained momentum on a single by Eric Hosmer and another double by Billy Butler, and then was capped off by a two-run shot from Lorenzo Cain. In this case, it carried the Royals to a 7-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night and to back-to-back wins for the first time since May 4-5.

It had been a long time since the Kansas City Royals spilled out of the dugout at Kauffman Stadium to celebrate a victory. One month, to be exact. Wednesday night, the scuffling team got just enough pitching from Jeremy Guthrie and its bullpen, and just enough hitting from David Lough and Billy Butler, to deliver a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins that ended its franchise-record 11-game home losing streak.

The Twins have rediscovered the grit they generally lacked while losing a combined 195 games in 2011 and 2012. Scott Diamond pitched six shutout innings and Josh Willingham hit one of Minnesota’s four home runs as the Twins beat the Seattle Mariners 10-0 Sunday, their seventh victory in nine games since dropping 10 straight in mid-May.

A 5-3 Minnesota Twins win on Sunday runs a win streak to 4 with weather shortened series sweeps over a couple of struggling ballclubs.

Jeremy Guthrie won his career-best seventh straight decision, dating to last season, and Alcides Escobar had three hits and an RBI as the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 7-4 Tuesday night. Joe Mauer, Josh Willingham and Eduardo Escobar each hit solo homers to keep the Twins close.

Mike Pelfrey pitched into the sixth inning in his Minnesota debut, Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe hit home runs and the Twins took the season-opening series from the Detroit Tigers with an 8-2 victory Thursday.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — New Phillies center fielder Ben Revere got off to a fast start against his former team with two hits and a steal Wednesday in Philadelphia’s 12-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Revere also scored twice. The Twins traded him to the Phillies for pitcher Vance Worley and pitching prospect Trevor May during the offseason...

Minnesota’s Josh Willingham opened the Grapefruit League season with two hits, including a two-run homer, though the Baltimore Orioles rallied late for a 5-3 win on Saturday.