Instead, Pablo Lopez looked the part of the stopper he was last season and the Twins rode a massive, two-out rally in the second inning to an easy 8-3 victory to begin the series and keep pace with the first-place Guardians.

The game started with the second batter of the game, Bobby Witt Jr. clubbing a solo home run. The second inning started ominously as well, with Ryan Jeffers interfering with MJ Melendez’s swing to allow the Royals’ left fielder to reach. After a strikeout and a 5-4 force out, the Royals got two-out singles from Maikel Garcia and Kyle Isbel to drive in a run and double their lead.

The Twins didn’t get their first baserunner until a Carlos Santana walk with two outs in the second inning, but that’s when the floodgates opened.

Jeffers and Austin Martin singled, cutting the Royals lead to 2-1. Then, Willi Castro dropped the head of the bat and yanked a down-and-in breaking ball over the tall wall in right-center, and the Twins had a 4-2 lead.

But they weren’t done. Trevor Larnach singled, preceding a Royce Lewis line drive off the facing of the terrace in left field. Turns out, you can’t leave a 92 mile-per-hour sinker belt-high on the inside part of the plate to Royce. 6-2, Twins.

After a rocky first couple of innings, Lopez retired the next six batters he faced. He ran into a slight bump in the road in the top of the fifth, giving up a double to Isbel and hitting Witt Jr. with a pitch, but he got Vinnie Pasquantino to fly out to Byron Buxton in center and that was the end of the Kansas City threat.

The Twins got a leadoff walk from Matt Wallner in the bottom of the frame, but strikeouts from Buxton and Max Kepler and a groundout from Santana ended the fifth. When the Twins took the field in the top of the next inning, Manuel Margot was playing center. The team later announced that Buxton was removed with right hip discomfort. So, as always, fingers crossed.

The Royals got a double from Melendez and a single Adam Frazier to make it a 6-3 game in the sixth, but Lopez escaped without further damage. After a three-up, three-down Twins at-bat in the bottom of the frame, Griffin Jax faced just four batters in a scoreless top of the seventh.

Minnesota added a couple of insurance runs after the seventh-inning stretch. Larnach walked before Lewis reached on a fielders’ choice misplay from Witt at shortstop, giving the Twins runners on first and second with nobody out. Wallner pulled a single into right field to plate Larnach. Then, Margot followed with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 8-3 and give Rocco Baldelli the ability to not go to any more high-leverage relievers for the rest of the game.

Indeed, Trevor Richards came on for the eighth and did his job, giving off a leadoff hit but then retiring three Royals in a row, including two strikeouts. Scott Blewett did the same in the ninth, setting down the Royals 1-2-3.

Notes

• The Twins got hits from every spot in their lineup except the Buxton/Margot spot, although Margot did drive in a run on a sac fly.
• Jeffers, Martin, and Castro were the only other starters to not reach base twice, and Castro had the biggest swing of the game, the three-run homer in the second inning.
• Lopez was great, scattering six hits over six innings and issuing zero walks against five strikeouts.
• The bullpen was even better, with Jax, Richards, and Blewett combining for three innings with only two hits, no walks, and four strikeouts.
• No immediate updates from the Twins after the game regarding Buxton’s status. So, hip discomfort it is, for now.
• Hard to overstate how important it was to start this series with a win after losing the last two to the Guardians. Cleveland won again on Monday, so the Twins are still 3.5 games back of first and are now 1.5 games clear of KC for second in the division and the second wild card spot.

Studs

• Willi Castro: 1-for-5, 3 RBI, HR
• Royce Lewis: 2-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 R, HR
• Pablo Lopez: 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 0 BB
• Bullpen: 3 IP, 2 H, 4 K, 0 BB

Duds

• None — Twins win! Twins win!