Kansas City, Mo. ? Back on June 5, Raul Ibanez was hitting just .198 and had one home run and 14 RBIs.

Since then, he’s become a different hitter.

Ibanez, Chuck Knoblauch and Michael Tucker each hit solo home runs as the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2, Sunday to snap a six-game home losing streak.

After his slow start, Ibanez has turned into the Royals’ leading run producer. He leads the team with 22 home runs and 89 RBIs including seven homers and 22 RBIs in August.

“It was a 2-0 changeup up and over the plate,” Ibanez said of his third-inning homer. “Accidents and line-drive swings. I’m not trying to hit the ball out of the park. I’m just trying to put an easy swing on the ball and put it through the middle of the field.”

Miguel Asencio (3-4) won for the first time since July 14, going 0-2 in seven starts in that span. He did not allow a hit until the fourth inning and shut out the AL Central leaders until Dustan Mohr hit a two-run homer in the seventh.

“Whenever you see Asencio getting ground balls after ground balls, that means his ball was moving really well today,” Royals manager Tony Pena said.

Cristian Guzman’s infield single in the sixth extended his hitting streak to 23 games. It’s the longest streak by a Twins player since Marty Cordova’s 23-game string in 1996.

Asencio, a Rule 5 draft pick who was pitching in Class A last year, held the Twins hitless until David Ortiz and Bobby Kielty stroked back-to-back singles with one out in the fourth. Asencio got out of that jam when Doug Mientkiewicz grounded into a double play.

Asencio scattered five hits over seven innings.

“Asencio threw the ball really well,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He had a great changeup. We helped him out early by chasing pitches out of the strike zone.”

Roberto Hernandez pitched the ninth for his 24th save in 31 chances. It was his 318th career save, tying him for ninth place on the all-time list with Rick Aguilera.

Knoblauch, Tucker and Ibanez all hit home runs in the first three innings off Kyle Lohse (11-8).

Knoblauch hit his career 31st leadoff home run and Tucker opened the second with his 12th homer.

“You can’t let a leadoff home run take you out my game plan,” Lohse said. “You can’t let it get to you. It wasn’t a bad pitch to Knoblauch. I tried to go inside. He turned on it pretty good and got enough of it.”

Lohse, who shut out the Chicago White Sox on four hits in his previous start, departed after five innings.

Neifi Perez, who had three hits, and Tucker doubled in the sixth off reliever Juan Rincon for a 4-0 lead.

Notes: Royals DH Mike Sweeney went 1-for-4, dropping his American League-leading average to .352. Guzman is hitting .361 during his streak. The Royals are assured of their 13th straight losing month, equaling a franchise record. The club also had 13 consecutive losing months from April 1969 through April 1971. Twins CF Torii Hunter, who was hitting .136 on this trip to drop his average to .298, was rested Sunday. The Twins have won 10 consecutive series against the Royals.