Mauer hits grand slam, Twins sweep DH from Royals

Kansas City, MO – Joe Mauer crushed a grand slam and the Minnesota Twins completed a doubleheader sweep of the Kansas City Royals with an 8-7 win in Saturday's nightcap at Kauffman Stadium.

Chris Parmelee smacked a three-run home run for the Twins, who took the opener of the twinbill, 3-1, behind a solid outing from Cole De Vries.

Anthony Swarzak (3-4) picked up the win with 2 2/3 innings of relief behind starter Liam Hendriks, who allowed five runs on 10 hits with five strikeouts. Kyle Waldrop worked the eighth and Glen Perkins picked up his second save of the day with a scoreless ninth.

"It was a good day for us," Mauer said of sweeping a doubleheader. "It's tough to take both games of a doubleheader, especially against the Royals. We always seem like we have good battles whenever we play them."

Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer drove in two runs apiece, while Salvador Perez went 4-for-5 with an RBI single. Billy Butler had three hits, including an RBI base hit, and scored three times for the Royals.

Luke Hochevar (7-13) took the loss after being tagged for eight runs on six hits and a season-high four walks in just 1 2/3 innings.

"I don't think that you ever think, 'I don't have it today'," Hochevar said regarding his rough start. "When you toe the rubber, I'm fighting for every single pitch."

Minnesota got out to a quick start, putting up four runs in the first inning. Ben Revere and Alexi Casilla ripped singles and Mauer walked to load the bases with no outs. Revere scored on a double-play groundout by Justin Morneau for the first run of the game and Parmelee smoked a three-run shot over the wall in right two batters later to widen the lead to 4-0.

Kansas City got two runs back in the home first on RBI singles by Perez and Moustakas, but the Twins tacked on four more runs in their next at-bat to blow the game open.

Drew Butera and Revere walked around a double into the right-center field gap by Pedro Florimon Jr to load the bases and Mauer got a high fastball from Hochevar and yanked it down the line in right and over the wall for an 8-2 game.

Moustakas pulled the Royals within five in the third with a rocket RBI double into the right-field corner.

Kansas City put up two more runs in the fourth to slice the deficit to three. David Lough got things started with a two-out single and Alcides Escobar reached on an error by Trevor Plouffe. Alex Gordon and Butler then came through with consecutive RBI singles to make it 8-5.

The Royals got a two-run single by Hosmer in the seventh inning.

Perkins allowed a leadoff single to Perez in the ninth, but pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson was picked off first base. Perkins fanned Moustakas and induced a groundout from Lorenzo Cain to finish off the win for his 10th save of the year.

Game Notes

Hochevar is 0-4 over his last six starts and has not won since July 31 ... Lough and catcher Manny Pina were called up by the Royals before the game as part of September roster expansion. Lough went 2-for-5 with two runs scored ... Mauer's grand slam was the third of his career and the Twins' first as a team this season ... All of the Royals runs were scored with two outs ... Kansas City went 7-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base, while the Twins went 2-for-4 with RISP and stranded three.