Cruz fuels Twins with 3rd 5-RBI game of season

MINNEAPOLIS -- Getting three games off with the Twins playing in a National League ballpark did nothing to cool off designated hitter Nelson Cruz's red-hot bat.

Cruz, the defending American League Player of the Week, returned to the starting lineup with a home run, two doubles, a walk and five RBIs in an 11-9 victory over the Royals on Friday night at Target Field. Cruz capped his night with a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning that sparked the decisive five-run rally against Kansas City’s bullpen.

The effort marked Cruz’s third game of the season with five RBIs, with one of those coming only a week ago in his three-homer game against the White Sox on July 25 at Guaranteed Rate Field. Only Jason Kubel owns more five-RBI games in a season in Twins history -- four in 2009.

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“[Cruz is] such a quality hitter -- in addition to being strong and driving the ball and hitting it hard, obviously, but he’s just a good hitter on top of it all,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s a lot of fun to watch, even for us in the dugout.”

Cruz’s strong effort was needed on another night that the Twins’ pitching struggled, as starter Martín Pérez tied a season high with three homers allowed, while newly acquired reliever Sam Dyson had another difficult outing, allowing three runs while recording only two outs.

Each of Cruz’s three hits tied the game or gave the Twins the lead, and it began with a two-run homer in the first inning against a low changeup from Royals starter Glenn Sparkman, which traveled a projected 412 feet, according to Statcast, into the upper deck in left-center field. Cruz has homered in six of his last eight starts, with eight total long balls over that span, to extend his season total to 27.

"It was a good pitch,” Cruz said. “I was able to stay on the zone and drive it. You just want to put something in the outfield to score a run."

Cruz’s shot was the 387th of his career, moving him past Aramis Ramirez and into 64th place on MLB’s all-time home run list. Next up is Hall of Famer Johnny Bench (389) -- not that Cruz is paying attention to his steady climb up the leaderboard.

"I think as a player, you have to focus on the daily basis, what you can do to help your team,” Cruz said. “So I don't get caught up in the moment of thinking way ahead to other situations. I just play one day at a time and one at-bat at a time."

He later added a fifth-inning double off the top of the wall in right-center field to score Max Kepler and tie the game at 5. Two innings later, Cruz broke another tie by fighting back from an 0-2 count to lace another double off the right-center-field wall, scoring two more runs to give the Twins the lead for good.

All three of Cruz’s hits left the bat in excess of 100 mph, marking his team-leading seventh game this season with at least three base hits that were struck that hard.

“There aren’t many people in the game that can have those types of at-bats on a fairly consistent basis and put up those runs of games and at-bats where he’s just squaring everything up,” Baldelli said.

Cruz has now hit safely in 12 of his last 13 starts, and he has tallied multiple hits in five of his last six. He had seven homers and 13 RBIs from July 22-28, the period for which he earned AL Player of the Week honors, but he wasn’t too concerned that his time off for Interleague Play would disrupt his hot streak.

He backed that up on the field on Friday night.

“I mean, I just want to win,” Cruz said. “If that's the key, if I have to sit and we win games, I'm good with it. If we lost, I'd probably be more frustrated or disappointed. But if we win, that's the only thing we care about."