Twins flush Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Tony Pena will be a great manager if he can just get the Royals to play as well in Kansas City as Minnesota does.
Torii Hunter homered twice and Minnesota hit five home runs at Kauffman Stadium for the second time this season as the Twins routed the Royals 14-5 Thursday.
Nevertheless, Pena remained optimistic despite starting his managerial career 0-2.
"I'm not going to get my head down," he said. "I told my players this is one bad day, a really, really bad day. If you're going to lose a game, I would rather lose that way. I don't want to lose a game by one run."
The best news for Pena is that he won't have to manage against Minnesota again until August.
Five of Minnesota's nine road wins have come at Kauffman, where Jones has hit five of his eight home runs. In 11 games against the Royals, the Twins have hit 16 homers.
In an 8-6 victory on opening day, Jacque Jones hit two home runs while David Ortiz, Brian Buchanan and Hunter all had one.
"I like this park. I love it," said Hunter, 4-for-6 with four RBIs and three runs scored. "You've got to hate it that we don't come back until August."
Jones, Cristian Guzman and Tom Prince also homered for the Twins, who added five doubles to set season highs in runs and hits (18).
"This is a beautiful ballpark," said Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire. "I guess we just see the ball well in this park."
Prince, who had three RBIs, didn't think the park had anything to do with it.
"I just think we've got an aggressive team, we go up there and we swing the bats," he said.
The Royals lost three of four to the Twins.
"There's not too many times we're going to blow the Royals out," Hunter said. "Today it was just one of those days. We hit the ball in all the right places."
Hunter hit a solo homer off Chris George (0-4) in the first inning and a three-run shot off Brian Shouse in the seventh. Hunter has 11 homers this season and two career multihomer games.
Jones homered off Miguel Asencio in the fourth. Guzman and Prince connected off Asencio in the sixth.
Kyle Lohse (3-2) went five innings for the victory, allowing three runs -- one earned -- four hits and five walks.
"It's good to be able to win when you don't have your best stuff," he said.
Jay Canizaro and Denny Hocking had RBI doubles in the second, and Prince hit an RBI groundout.
The Royals scored three in the fifth on Michael Tucker's two-run single and an RBI single by Carlos Beltran.
In the seventh, Prince and Jones had RBI singles ahead of Hunter's three-run shot. It was the third career four-hit game for Hunter.
George allowed six runs and seven hits in just three innings.
"I threw my fastballs over the plate and they missed them in the first inning, but they didn't miss them in the second and third," George said.
Brandon Berger hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Royals.
Notes: Chuck Knoblauch stole his 400th career base in the fifth inning but should have been out. Lohse caught him breaking for third before he went into his delivery, but his throw to Canizaro was high. A moment later, Lohse caught Neifi Perez straying too far off first, but waited too long to throw to first baseman Bobby Kielty. Both runners later scored. ... Minnesota 1B Doug Mientkiewicz returned home and met with a hand specialist, who gave him an injection. He re-aggravated a sore wrist on Wednesday. Gardenhire said he would probably miss the weekend series at New York. ... The Twins' previous highs were 13 runs and 16 hits against Detroit on April 14. ... The 14 runs allowed matched a season high and the 18 hits were a season high against the Royals.
MINNESOTA KANSAS CITY
ab r h bi ab r h bi
JJones lf 6 2 2 2 Knblch lf 3 1 0 0
CGzmn ss 6 2 1 1 Berger lf 1 1 1 2
THnter cf 6 3 4 4 NPerez ss 3 1 0 0
DOrtiz dh 3 0 1 0 Sadler ss 2 0 0 0
Bchnan dh 2 0 1 0 MiSwy 1b 1 1 0 0
Mohr rf 5 2 2 1 Ibanez 1b 2 0 1 0
Kielty 1b 4 2 2 0 Tucker cf 5 0 2 2
Cnizaro 3b 4 1 1 2 Randa 3b 2 0 0 0
Prince c 4 2 2 3 Alicea 3b 2 0 0 0
Hcking 2b 4 0 2 1 Beltran dh 3 0 2 1
Quinn rf 3 0 0 0
Febles 2b 4 0 1 0
Brito c 4 1 2 0
Totals 44 14 18 14 Totals 35 5 9 5
Minnesota 132 102 500 -- 14
Kansas City 000 030 002 -- 5
E--Canizaro (2), Randa (3). DP--Minnesota 2. LOB--Minnesota 9, Kansas City
9. 2B--DOrtiz (4), Buchanan (2), Kielty (5), Canizaro (7), Hocking (3), Tucker (6), Febles (6), Brito 2 (2). HR--JJones (8), CGuzman (2), THunter 2 (11), Prince (4), Berger (1). SB--Mohr 2 (3), Kielty (2), Knoblauch 2 (12). SF--Canizaro.
IP H R ER BB SO
Minnesota
Lohse W,3-2 5 4 3 1 5 2
Cressend 2 1 0 0 0 0
Wells 1 0 0 0 0 1
Trombley 1 4 2 2 0 0
Kansas City
George L,0-4 3 7 6 6 1 2
Ascencio 3 5 3 3 1 1
BShouse 2-3 5 5 5 2 0
Grimsley 1 1-3 1 0 0 1 0
RHernandez 1 0 0 0 0 2
HBP--by Lohse (Quinn).
Umpires--Home, Chuck Meriwether; First, Ted Barrett; Second, Brian Runge; Third, Tim McClelland.
T--3:15. A--24,055 (40,793).