MINNEAPOLIS -- When the Royals invaded Minneapolis on Sunday night, they did so coming off a win. But the offense was mired in a funk and the pitching had been merely decent. They sat in second place behind the surprising Twins. The team had still lost nine of the previous 12 games.
After Wednesday's 7-2 thrashing of Minnesota, Kansas City will once again board its charter flight as the first-place team in the American League Central. The slump at the plate will have been forgotten. The starting pitching will have just dominated.
The Royals will be riding a four-game winning streak and carrying a two-game division lead into a weekend series against St. Louis. Kansas City will have just swept Minnesota, a series punctuated by Torii Hunter's disrobing meltdown in the eighth inning.
Royals manager Ned Yost, despite his club's struggles, said the team anticipated the hot streak.
"As soon as we broke out, we could probably go on a nice run and this could be the start of a nice run for us," Yost said.
Edinson Volquez continued the Royals' recent string of outstanding starting pitching, lasting seven innings and surrendering just one run. He yielded six hits and three walks as Minnesota stranded seven runners against the right-hander.
The Royals' sleep-walking offense snapped out of its slumber early, plating four runs in the first inning. The four runs were as many as Kansas City had scored in its previous nine games.
First baseman Eric Hosmer smacked an RBI single to score shortstop Alcides Escobar and put the Royals on the board in the first inning for the second straight night. Left fielder Alex Gordon gave Kansas City breathing room by pulverizing a Kyle Gibson changeup into the third row of Target Field's seats in right.
Gordon's homer made the first inning a practical explosion of offense for Kansas City. It was the largest one-inning outburst since May 15, when the Royals hung six on the Yankees in the sixth inning.
"You're going to have slumps throughout the season, it's just how you respond to it," Gordon said. "We kept our heads up. It was frustrating at times, but we knew we were going to get out of it, play some better baseball, and that's what we're doing now."
As he rounded third base, Gordon smoothly pulled his hand back from third-base coach Mike Jirschele's high five, a move he promised to do again at some point.
The Royals also capitalized on Minnesota's mistakes. The Twins made three errors. Kansas City scored after each one of them. One night earlier, the Royals scored just two runs on nine hits, four walks and three wild pitches.
Volquez threw 115 pitches -- the most by a Royals pitcher this season -- across his seven innings, rarely dipping into trouble and easily sidestepping it when it did emerge. He gave up six hits and walked three. Volquez struck out six as the Twins stranded seven runners against him.
He said his fastball carried him through the early innings, his breaking stuff pulling him through the last few. Volquez expressed relief to finally finish six innings after being removed two outs and one out into the inning in his last two starts, respectively.
Watch the Royals Live pregame and postgame shows before and after every Kansas City Royals game on FOX Sports Kansas City.
Hunter was not as grateful. After getting rung up by home-plate umpire Mark Ripperger on a called third strike in the eighth inning, Hunter turned around to discuss the call. Moments later, Hunter was ejected. Twins manager Paul Molitor came out to investigate. He was also ejected.
Hunter was restrained by Twins coaches and other umpires. He appeared to be making his way toward the first-base dugout when he stopped and removed his elbow guard and his shin pad, his left batting glove and then the right one. All went flying across the infield.
Last was Hunter's jersey, which he flung before disappearing into the dugout.
"A lot of times you just see yelling and screaming and they walk off," Yost said. "There was some striptease going on there."
Hunter's frustration represented the swift fall of the Twins. They had held the AL's best record at the beginning of the series. At the end of it, that distinction belonged to the Royals. It set up a showdown with the National League-leading Cardinals.
"To get out of town sweeping the series," Yost said, "that's a good feeling."
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
