Royals get three homers to power their way past Twins

Bailey Ober gave up nine hits and six runs while fanning four across five innings.

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober (17) delivers a pitch against the Kansas City Royals in the first inning at Target Field in Minneapolis on May 29, 2024. | Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Royals hit three homers off Twins starter Bailey Ober in a 6-1 victory Wednesday night at Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. 

Ober got tagged for nine hits and six runs while fanning four across five innings. 

The Royals (35-22) got homers from Salvador Perez and Nelson Velazquez, who hit two off Ober, in the victory. Bobby Witt Jr. plated the first run of the game with an RBI single to right field that knotted the game at 1-1 during the third inning.

That was the first of four runs the Royals would plate in the inning as Perez hit an RBI double and Velazquez hit his first homer of the day — a two-run, 437-foot shot to center field. 

The Twins (30-25) struck first in the second inning when Jose Miranda hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Willi Castro, who reached earlier in the inning with a double to right field.

The Royals plated another pair of runs in the fifth inning when Perez homered and Velazquez hit his second homer of the day as they jumped out to a 6-1 advantage. 

Twins relievers kept the Royals offense quiet after that. Steven Okert pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning, Diego Castillo pitched hitless seventh and eighth innings and Cole Sands pitched a scoreless ninth to give the Twins a chance the rest of the way. 

But the Twins offense couldn’t string anything together as they dropped their first game of the series. The Twins and Royals meet for the fourth and final game of this series at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday.