Kansas City, Mo. ? Tony Pena was grinning ear to ear, even though he lost his first game as a major league manager because of a pitching move that went sour.

“I enjoyed that,” Kansas City’s new manager said Wednesday night after Jacque Jones homered twice to power Minnesota past the Royals. 8-6. “I don’t know about you, but I enjoyed that game.”

The former NL All-Star catcher, hired earlier in the day off the staff of the Houston Astros, saw one of his first managerial moves go bad.

With the score 4-all in the sixth and two runners on base, he summoned rookie left-hander Brian Shouse to face the left-handed Jones, who hit a 2-0 pitch over the wall in right.

“Any time I have a chance to get a left-hander hitting against a lefty, I will,” Pena said. “I’m going to take my chances any time like that.”

Perhaps his boldest move was a double steal with two on and two outs in the ninth. Lead runner Chuck Knoblauch was barely safe at third, but Eddie Guardado struck out Carlos Beltran to end the game.

“That was a pretty gutsy move,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

“I will not sit back waiting for things to happen,” Pena said. “We have to make things happen. And if they give him the base, he should take it. any time they give him the base, he’s going to take it. Whoever is running.”

The Royals got off to a rough start under Pena. On the second pitch of the game, Jones connected off Blake Stein for his third leadoff homer this season.

Jones also homered twice in an 8-6 victory in Kansas City on opening day. He is 11-for-32 (.344) with four home runs and nine RBIs against the Royals this year.

Jones said it didn’t matter whether he faced a left-hander or a right-hander.

“They’re all going to have to throw the ball over the plate,” he said. “I don’t care who I face.But we always seem to play good games against this team. They never quit.”

Mike Sweeney homered, doubled twice and singled for the Royals.

“I wish I could pitch to Jones,” Sweeney said. “We need to try something different.”

Kansas City second baseman Carlos Febles made two throwing errors, including an errant toss to first that allowed a run to score a run in the eighth.

Eric Milton (5-3) went 6 1-3 innings and gave up eight hits and six runs, without a walk or a strikeout.

Milton raised his career record against the Royals to 12-2. In his last 11 starts against Kansas City, the left-hander is 9-0.

Guardado worked the ninth for his league-leading 14th save in 14 opportunities. He has pitched 14 consecutive scoreless innings.

Dan Reichert (1-4) went 1 2-3 innings, giving up three unearned runs, one hit and one walk.

Milton left with a 7-6 lead when Neifi Perez hit a long two-run homer with one out in the seventh.

Bobby Kielty, a late addition to the lineup after Doug Mientkiewicz hurt his wrist in batting practice, hit a pair of RBI singles as the Twins took a 3-0 lead.

A.J. Hinch scored on Milton’s wild pitch in the bottom of the third and Febles tied it with a two-run single in the fourth.

Notes: CF Torii Hunter made a great leaping catch of Joe Randa’s drive in the Royals’ fifth, leaping at the wall to rob him of extra bases. … It was Jones’ eighth career leadoff home run and third career two-homer game. … Pena got in his first umpire argument in the fifth after Kielty appeared to trap Perez’s pop foul off the wall in right.