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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Kansas City Royals have gone two straight games without a major blunder by their bullpen. Still, it was a little too close for manager Tony Muser's comfort. "Do we have to take it?" Muser deadpanned. Roberto Hernandez survived another less-than-perfect ninth inning Monday night as the Royals got two-run homers from Jermaine Dye and Mark Quinn and stopped the Minnesota Twins' six-game winning streak, 5-3. Kansas City, just 4-9 this season, has won three of four against the Twins. Those are the only defeats for Minnesota (9-3), which leads the AL Central by 3½ games. Brought in to boost a Royals relief corps that blew 26 saves last year, Hernandez has allowed 13 hits and nine runs in 5 1/3 innings and put a runner on base in all six outings. But he managed to earn his third save and second in as many days. "He probably pitched better today than he had all season," Muser said. "He was a little tired, which was probably a good thing, because he didn't try to overthrow it." Hernandez still had the Royals and starter Dan Reichert (1-1) worrying in the final inning. Doug Mientkiewicz, 2-for-4 with a home run, led off with a single and Cristian Guzman's one-out bloop dropped in for a double to put runners on second and third. But David McCarty, who played for Minnesota from 1993-95, snagged Denny Hocking's liner with a leaping catch and beat Guzman back to the bag with a quick throw to second. "It was just a bad job of timely hitting," Hocking smirked. "I hit an 8-foot liner at a guy who is 6-foot-5. If that gets by, we've got a man on second with one out and a tie game." Hernandez was gracious. "Probably that's the break we needed," he said. Dye homered with two outs in the first against Joe Mays (2-1), driving in Carlos Beltran. After Beltran walked with one out in the third, Quinn hit his sixth home run to make it 4-0 and extend his hitting streak to 12 games. But Mays finished strong as the Twins slowly crept back. He pitched seven innings, allowing five hits and striking out five. Retiring 10 straight at one point, Mays got 16 groundball outs. Corey Koskie had several slick pickups among his six assists at third base, and Mientkiewicz made two brilliant plays at first base. He snared Beltran's grounder down the line in the fifth and nearly snagged a line drive by Raul Ibanez in the sixth, scrambling back to the base in time to field Luis Rivas' throw from second. "I thought I threw the ball pretty well," said Mays, who by allowing four runs ended Minnesota's string of six straight quality starts. "I'd throw those pitches (to Dye and Quinn) nine out of 10 times, and I don't think they'll hit it out of the park." Reichert (1-1) gave up eight hits in 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs. Mientkiewicz hit his third homer on Reichert's first pitch of the fifth after Bobby Kielty drove in the Twins' first run with a fourth-inning single. For the second time in the game, Jones hit a bloop double that Quinn lost in the Metrodome ceiling. Jones scored later in the seventh on a single by Tom Prince. But Tony Cogan, who leads the AL with nine appearances, got Kansas City out of a one-out jam with runners on second and third to preserve the 4-3 lead. And Jason Grimsley, who has yielded only three hits in 10 2/3 scoreless innings this year worked a perfect eighth to set up Hernandez. "That's the way you win a ballgame," Reichert said. Game notesThe Royals added a run in the eighth off Hector Carrasco on Joe Randa's RBI single. ... Guzman hit a sharp liner in the fifth that glanced off Reichert's shin and into shallow right field for a double. ... Guzman, who has had 13 of his 18 hits go for extra bases, tied a career-high by extending his hitting streak to 11 games. Mike Sweeney, 9-for-52 this season, had his three-game home run streak snapped. ... Quinn is 7-for-15 against the Twins this year. ... Lawton has reached in every game and has 15 walks but just nine hits.  Send this story to a friend
| RECAPS Boston 4 NY Yankees 1
Kansas City 5
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