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Slumping Mike Aviles doubled twice and drove
in three runs as the Kansas City Royals became the latest team to
tag Francisco Liriano, roughing up the Minnesota Twins 10-5
Wednesday.


      Aviles ended his 0-for-18 rut and Alex Gordon added two hits and
drove in two runs. The Royals scored six times in the fourth inning
to break open the game.


      Kyle Davies (1-1) won despite allowing five runs and 10 hits in
five innings. Jeremy Jeffress threw two scoreless innings for his
first major league save.

      Liriano (0-3) gave up six straight hits during the Royals' big
inning. He began the game with a 7.71 ERA after Toronto and the
Yankees knocked him around in his first two starts.


      Denard Span was 4 for 4 and scored twice for the Twins, who
started the day as the lowest-scoring team in the majors.


      Kansas City is showing no such problem with its bats.


      The Royals started the day with the AL's second-best batting
average and every starter except Matt Treanor finished with a hit
Wednesday.


      Liriano went 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA last year and ranked fifth in
the AL with 201 strikeouts. The left-hander is still trying to
re-establish his dominance after elbow surgery four years ago.


      Liriano held the Royals hitless through the first three innings.
The second time through the order, however, proved a tougher task.
That's been his pattern this year - in their first plate appearance
against Liriano, hitters are batting just .083.
     


 Manager Ron Gardenhire has been telling Liriano to relax, trust
his movement and pitch to contact. In the first three innings,
Liriano holds a 2.00 ERA; from the fourth inning on, his ERA jumps
to 18.56 and hitters are hitting .448 off him.
      


Kansas City opened the fourth with five straight singles before
a two-run double by Aviles. Alcides Escobar later singled and Chris
Getz had an RBI single.
      


Aviles added an RBI double in the sixth after Minnesota struck
for four runs in the fifth against Davies. Gordon hit a two-run
double as part of a three-run ninth.
      

The Twins scored in the first inning for the first time this
season, but missed a prime opportunity for more.
   

   Span opened with a single, the first leadoff hit for Minnesota
this season, and later scored. The Twins had runners at first and
third with no outs, but a pair of popouts and a strikeout ended the
threat for Davies.


      NOTES: Liriano was 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA last season against
Kansas City. He only allowed two earned runs in 14 innings. ... The
Twins led the majors in first-inning runs last season, but had
failed to score in the first or second innings in any game this
season. The three first-inning hits equaled their season total.
Minnesota entered the game 3 for 33 in the first inning, with two
walks and 11 strikeouts.

Gallery

Sports

The Kansas City Royals became the latest team to
tag Minnesota Twins' pitcher Francisco Liriano, winning this afternoon's game 10-5 at Target Field. Liriano gave up six straight hits during the Royals' big fourth inning, and is 0-3 so far this season.

Twins lose to Royals 10-5

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