Lineup clicking, Dozier's hustle spark KC

Royals third-base coach Vance Wilson was watching three things as Michael A. Taylor made contact off Twins starter Randy Dobnak with two outs in the fifth inning of Kansas City’s eventual 8-3 win on Friday night at Target Field.

1) The ball rolling to the right-center gap.

2) The outfielders -- right fielder Kyle Garlick and center fielder Rob Refsnyder -- running to field that ball that was closing in on the warning track.

3) The cut-off man, second baseman Jorge Polanco, and where he’s set up to throw the ball home if needed. Wilson noticed that Polanco wasn’t lined up directly with home plate, so when he cut off the ball, it was going to require a spin throw, which usually goes up the line.

The one thing Wilson wasn’t worried about was Hunter Dozier sprinting around the bases when Taylor’s ball found a hole. Wilson knew Dozier would be running at full speed, so in the split second that Wilson assessed the situation, he could make the call to send Dozier home.

Polanco’s throw was up the line, and Twins catcher Mitch Garver couldn’t hang onto the ball to make a last-second tag. Dozier was safe, tied the game and sparked the Royals to a series-opening victory.

“It was kind of one of those things where you figure the risk-reward in that situation, two outs, the way they were set up and the way we’ve been going, it’s like, ‘Man, let’s take a shot,’” Wilson said. “And it worked out.”

In the back of his mind during the play was how the Royals’ offense had been going lately. It had scored just five runs in three games against the Rays earlier this week, and Kansas City was already down, 1-0, to the Twins.

“You can’t get crazy with that; it’s got to be the right setup,” Wilson said. “The way they were lined up to cut off the ball gave us a chance for hopefully a throw up the line. … So it’s that situation right there, and that inning it’s almost like, ‘All right man, if we can get this done, it can jumpstart us.’”

And that’s what it did.

The Royals scored two more runs in the fifth off Dobnak, who had set down 14 of the first 16 batters he faced before Dozier’s two-out walk in the fifth. Then, Kansas City erupted for five runs in the seventh, sending 10 batters to the plate. The eight runs are the most the Royals have scored since May 1 against Minnesota, which was right before they lost 11 consecutive games. The 13 hits as a team was the Royals’ second-highest total of the season and most since collecting 15 on Opening Day against the Rangers.

“You need that spark sometimes,” manager Mike Matheny said. “And it was Doz. He made that play happen by how hard he hustled, and then Vance took advantage of it. Watching those guys go through the two-out at-bats like they did, you could tell early on they were taking some pretty good swings. Stayed with a simple approach, and made some big innings happen.”

This was a positive step toward the Royals’ capabilities on offense. For the first time, they had most of their regulars in the same lineup, with Adalberto Mondesi returning from the injured list earlier this week and Dozier returning from his IL stint on Friday.

Dozier broke out of an 0-for-32 slump with a single in the seventh inning. And Jorge Soler hit two line drives up the middle, snapping an 0-for-22 skid. The Royals are going to need all three of those bats this season.

“What [Soler] did today was very similar to the work that he had today in his early work and batting practice,” Matheny said. “It’s probably really hard for a guy who has 48-home run power to shorten up sometimes and use the field. But it’s also necessary at times. And that was the approach he had, and he stuck with it throughout the game.”

Kansas City did end up needing the insurance runs after Minnesota staged a late rally against reliever Tyler Zuber, but before that, starter Kris Bubic was excellent in six innings. The lefty navigated around a long, 24-pitch first inning to allow just one run on four hits, with five strikeouts and two walks to pick up his first win of the season.

Prior to the game, Matheny talked about the potential of his team’s offense when it puts together the lineup the club had been hoping for all spring. But he emphasized that potential doesn’t get the job done.

On Friday, potential turned into production.

“That’s kind of our lineup at full strength tonight,” said Whit Merrifield, who singled and doubled for three RBIs. “We had everybody clicking.”