Morales homers twice, Royals score 7 in 9th to beat Twins

Dozier launched a leadoff home run Tuesday night off Kansas City Royals starter Dillon Gee to make it five straight games with a homer, tying the Minnesota Twins' record held by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and Marty Cordova. Gee's bounced in and out of the rotation, tossing a scoreless inning last week after giving up one earned run over six innings in his last start (against the Yankees).

Jarrod Dyson and Paulo Orlando started the game with singles, but both of them were picked off first base with a quick throw by the right-handed Gibson, who had only six pickoffs in 93 previous major league starts.

Morales got the Royals on the board with a two-run dong in the first inning, and his three-run blast in the ninth was part of a seven-run onslaught that tilted the scales in favor of KC. This is partly due to the fact that Dozier is notoriously streaky and can disappear for months at a time, and partly due to the fact that he's stuck playing in baseball wilderness with the Minnesota Twins.

PHILLIES 6, MARLINS 2: Freddy Galvis hit a two-run homer and the Phillies snapped a six-game losing streak.

Perez has 20 home runs and 59 RBIs in 121 games for the defending champion Royals, who started Wednesday four games out of the second AL wild card spot.

"He's been fantastic, really fantastic" Royals manager Ned Yost said.

CARDINALS 12, PIRATES 6 Adam Wainwright drove in three runs and survived five occasionally bumpy innings to pick up his first victory since mid-July. He now has 10 home runs against Kansas City this season, two more than any other Royals opponent in franchise history.

Dozier hit a two-run shot in the third and Eduardo Escobar's sacrifice bunt scored Eddie Rosario from second when nobody covered home plate, pushing the Twins lead to 4-2.

The Royals took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on run-scoring hits by Kendrys Morales and Whit Merrifield. Dozier's hit nine home runs in his last eight games and 21 in his last 35 - the most in a 35-game span since Shawn Green did it in 2002 according to Major League Baseball.

Former Royal Ervin Santana also allowed three runs in six-plus innings, scattering three hits and walking three while striking out six.

NOTES: Royals C Salvador Perez was not in the lineup one night after being hit on the wrist by a pitch. Plouffe left after falling behind 1-2 and was replaced by Vargas. RHP Tyler Duffey (8-10, 6.24 ERA) pitches for the Twins, against RHP Danny Salazar (11-6, 3.78 ERA) of the Indians. Kansas City sends RHP Yordano Ventura to the mound against Chicago LHP Carlos Rodon. Joakim Soria blew another lead, and the Royals fell to Minnesota, 6-5, on Wednesday night.