Kansas City 16, Minnesota 3 – Royals’ offense breaks loose in victory over Twins

? Carlos Beltran broke open a close game with a three-run homer in the seventh inning and the Kansas City Royals scored nine more times in the eighth to rout the Minnesota Twins, 16-3, Wednesday night.

Beltran’s first homer of the season made it 7-3 and helped the Royals stop a three-game losing streak. The Twins had won four in a row.

Beltran added a sacrifice fly and Raul Ibanez singled and hit a three-run double in the big eighth. Brent Mayne ended the outburst with a flyout, bringing sarcastic applause from the crowd.

Joe Randa drove in three runs for the Royals.

Paul Byrd (3-0) pitched six innings and allowed three runs on homers by Bobby Kielty and David Ortiz.

Brad Radke (2-1) has now yielded nine runs in 10 innings against the Royals this season. Minnesota’s ace continued the latest trend for the Twins starters, who have struggled this year to a 5-6 record with a 7.47 ERA.

Radke’s troubles started in the first when Mike Sweeney hit an RBI single and Randa had a two-run double.

Radke was pulled in the sixth after giving up his second hit to Randa, who drove in Michael Tucker with a single that made it 4-1.

The Twins pulled to 4-3 in the sixth on Ortiz’s two-run homer. Ortiz was in a 2-for-22 slump before hitting his first home run of the season.

But Twins reliever LaTroy Hawkins got in trouble after giving up a walk to Brent Mayne to lead off the seventh. Chuck Knoblauch followed with a grounder to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who overthrew Cristian Guzman at second base. One out later, Beltran homered.

In the eighth, the Royas hit five consecutive singles with one out off Bob Wells. Reliever Jack Cressend gave up an RBI double to Neifi Perez that made it 11-3, Beltran hit a sacrifice fly, Tucker had an RBI single and Ibanez doubled.

Notes: Byrd has three of the Royals’ five wins. … The Royals have won only two of their last 12 games against the Twins dating back to May 13, 2001. They now lead the lifetime series 239-238. … Twins OF Jacque Jones has reached base in all 15 games this season, and has at least one hit in 14. … The Royals will likely decide today who they’ll call up from Triple-A Omaha to replace pitchers Darrell May and Chad Durbin this weekend. … Twins OF Brian Buchanan (lower back) will head to Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday to join Triple-A Edmonton for a doubleheader. He’ll return to Minneapolis on Friday for the Twins’ first game against Cleveland. … Randa left in the eighth with slight tightness in his left hamstring.