MINNEAPOLIS — Edouard Julien hit a pinch-hit, solo homer to start a five-run eighth inning and the Minnesota Twins went on to beat the Kansas City Royals 8-4 on Monday night.
Carlos Correa tied a career-high with four hits from the leadoff spot and Byron Buxton drove in a pair of runs with sacrifice flies for Minnesota, which beat Kansas City for the seventh time in eight games this season.
Julien, the Canadian rookie second baseman, hit for Kyle Farmer to lead off the eighth and sent the first pitch he saw from Royals reliever Taylor Clarke for a no-doubt homer to right field. It was the first pinch hit for Julien, who was told he was pinch-hitting but didn’t realize it was leading off the inning.
“I was sitting on the couch and they yelled, ‘Eddie, you’re leading off,’” Julien said. “I rushed back to the dugout and I couldn’t find my elbow guard. It was not there. I just picked a random elbow guard, put it on and had no idea what the pitcher had. I just swung.”
Kansas City had tied the game in the top of the inning on a solo homer by Nick Pratto.
Clarke (1-3) surrendered five runs on five hits and retired just one of the seven batters he faced.
PHOTOS: Julien's pinch-hit homer starts 5-run inning; Twins beat Royals 8-4
“We have confidence in him,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said of Clarke. “We’re going to keep putting him out there in leverage, or any situation we feel good about. He’s in a little bit of a rough patch right now, but we’ve seen what he can do on the positive side and we’re going to keep working with him.”
Clarke held a 2.70 ERA through his first 30 innings this season, but he’s given up 15 earned runs in 5 2/3 over his last seven appearances.
“It was going so good for awhile, and then the wheels completely fell off,” Clarke said. “It wasn’t even gradual. I don’t know. I wish I had more of an answer for you. I feel like I’m doing everything the same, just the results aren’t there. I have to scrap it over and start from (scratch), from the beginning.”
Minnesota’s Brent Headrick (2-0) allowed Pratto, the first batter he faced Monday, to homer to lead off the eighth. He retired the next three batters he faced, with two strikeouts.
Michael A. Taylor drove in the second run in the eighth as his bunt was fielded by Clarke with nowhere to throw. Max Kepler, Correa and Alex Kirilloff followed with three straight RBI singles for the Twins.
“We did a good job of adjusting in some of these at-bats, of hitting balls in different spots in the zone,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’ve talked about those things for a little while this year and you can see, that’s what it looks like when you mix in some good swings and just some tough at-bats.”
Royals rookie Maikel Garcia reached base four times and hit the first pitch of the game off Joe Ryan for a homer. Kansas City, which had won two straight against the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, have lost 11 of their last 12 games in Minnesota.
BOUNCEBACK JOE
Ryan (9-5) bounced back from his worst outing of the season with his team-high 12th quality start. He surrendered six runs with a career-high five homers allowed in just three innings against Atlanta in his previous start. Ryan settled in after the leadoff homer and gave up just six hits, two runs and struck out nine.
TRAINERS ROOM
Royals: C Salvador Perez was out of the lineup with a sore toe after being hit in the foot by a pitch on Sunday. Quatraro said Perez was available off the bench and he was on-deck to pinch-hit when the final out was recorded.
Twins: An MRI showed a Grade 2 oblique strain for 3B Royce Lewis and the recovery is expected to be about six weeks for Lewis, who’s hit .326 in 26 games for Minnesota this season. … 2B Jorge Polanco (left hamstring strain) has continued his running progression without pain or discomfort and he was scheduled to do “high-effort sprints” on Monday.
UP NEXT
RHP Zack Greinke (1-8, 5.15 ERA) will start Sunday afternoon for Kansas City, with Minnesota countering with RHP Kenta Maeda (1-5, 6.23). Greinke is 5-15 with a 4.79 ERA in 32 career games against the Twins. Maeda has allowed two runs in 10 innings since returning from the injured list.
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