Royals starter Andy Hassler held the Twins hitless for five innings, and Kansas City batters picked up 12 hits in their 7-2 win at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

Hassler dealt a pair of walks to Minnesota in the second inning but otherwise was perfect for the first five innings. The Twins’ first hit was a Rod Carew triple with one out in the sixth. That drove in Glenn Borgmann, who had started the frame with a walk. With two outs, Craig Kusick singled to score Carew before Hassler finished the inning with help from shortstop Freddie Patek, who made a nice play to snare Roy Smalley’s line drive.

Those two runs cut the Royals’ lead to 4-2. Kansas City had built their lead with one run in the fourth and three more in the sixth. In the fourth inning, facing Twins starter Pete Redfern, Hal McRae led off with a single. George Brett singled as well, but McRae was thrown out trying to reach third. Brett took second on the play and moved up on a groundout, then scored on Al Cowens’ single.

In the sixth, Brett singled with one out and John Mayberry walked. With two outs, Amos Otis doubled to drive in one run. John Wathan singled to score two more, pushing the lead to 4-0.

The Royals then put the game away with three runs in the ninth. Twins reliever Jeff Holly gave up a one-out single to Patek. With two outs, singles by McRae and Brett and a Mayberry double upped the KC advantage to 7-2.

Royals reliever Steve Mingori picked up his first save of the season by pitching the final three innings. He only allowed two hits, meaning Minnesota was held to four for the game.

With the win, the Royals improved to 26-27. They were in fifth place in the AL West, six games behind Minnesota.

Box score and play-by-play:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN197706090.shtml

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