Max Kepler drives in 4 as Twins rout Royals

Max Kepler homered and drove in four runs and Donovan Solano had a home run, two doubles and scored three times to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 9-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday afternoon in Minneapolis.

Byron Buxton also homered, had three hits and scored three times. Alex Kirilloff added a two-run single for the American League Central-leading Twins, who moved back over the .500 mark (44-43) with their fourth win in the past five games.

Kenta Maeda (2-5), making his third start after missing two months with a triceps injury, picked up the victory, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits over seven innings. He walked one and struck out nine.

Bobby Witt Jr. homered and had two hits for Kansas City, which lost for the eighth time in its past nine meetings with Minnesota. Zack Greinke (1-9) suffered the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings before leaving with right shoulder discomfort. He didn't walk a batter and struck out three.

Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Buxton singled with two outs, advanced to second when Kirilloff was hit by a pitch and scored on a single by Kepler.

The Twins extended the lead to 4-0 in the third on Kepler's 12th home run of the season, a 417-foot drive to left-center that scored Carlos Correa, who had singled for his 1,000th major league hit, and Solano, who had doubled.

Kansas City cut it to 4-2 in the fourth when Maikel Garcia reached base on a fielding error by Jose Miranda and scored on Witt's 13th home run of the season, a 432-foot blast deep into the bullpen in left-center.

Minnesota increased its lead to 6-2 in the fifth when Solano and Buxton homered on back-to-back pitches. The Twins then broke the game open with a three-run seventh, highlighted by a two-run single by Kirilloff and a bases-loaded walk by Willi Castro.