Minneapolis ? Darrell May departed spring training as the last member of Kansas City’s rotation, but injuries and ineffectiveness have left him the only one still starting.

For that, the Royals are quite thankful.

May pitched into the seventh inning, Kansas City threw out two runners at home, and the Royals evened an important intradivision series with a 3-2 victory Friday night against Minnesota.

“Darrell May’s the man of the hour. We’re not in this situation right now if he doesn’t do what he does,” said Jeremy Affeldt, who pitched the last 21/3 innings for his second save.

Joe Randa went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Kansas City, which avoided losing five in a row for the first time all season.

“No question about it, anytime Darrell May goes out to pitch, we have a chance,” said manager Tony Pena, who began the season with Affeldt (blisters), Chris George (optioned to Triple-A), Runelvys Hernandez (optioned to Double-A) and Miguel Asencio (elbow) in his rotation. May now heads a group that includes Kevin Appier, Jose Lima, Paul Abbott and rookie Jimmy Gobble.

After losing 4-3 on Thursday and falling into third place for the first time all season, the Royals took an early lead and kept it in front of a crowd of 36,101 — the fourth-largest in the Metrodome this year.

“Big crowd, lots of people, very exciting,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. “They held on.”

Brent Mayne and Raul Ibanez also drove in runs for Kansas City, which passed the Twins in the AL Central race. The Chicago White Sox lead the Royals by one game and the Twins by 11/2.

Kansas City reliever Jeremy Affeldt celebrates after striking out Minnesota's Shannon Stewart for the final out. Affeldt picked up his second save, allowing no runs or hits in 21/3 innings, in the Royals' 3-2 win Friday in Minneapolis.

Shannon Stewart went 3-for-4 and Jacque Jones had two hits and scored twice for the Twins, who are 7-10 against the Royals this year despite outscoring them 101-80.

“May is very deceptive,” Gardenhire said. “His ball jumps on you.”

May (7-6), who beat the Twins last Sunday, is responsible for Kansas City’s only two quality starts in their last eight games. After a brief demotion to the bullpen, he’s 6-2 in July and August.

“It’s funny how things work sometimes,” he said. “At the beginning of the season, I was the oldest guy in the rotation. Now I’m one of the youngest.”

Trailing 3-0, the Twins ran themselves out of a rally in the fifth.

Jones and Stewart hit singles sandwiched around two outs, and Luis Rivas doubled off the right-field wall to score Jones for the first run. But third-base coach Al Newman waved around Stewart, who was out easily at the plate to end the inning on the relay from second baseman Desi Relaford.

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Jones led off the seventh with a double and scored to pull the Twins within 3-2 when Cristian Guzman hit a bloop single to right on an inside-out swing.

Jason Grimsley replaced May and gave up a single to Stewart, but he got pinch-hitter Denny Hocking to hit into a fielder’s choice to first — and Guzman became the second man thrown out at the plate.

Twins starter Kyle Lohse (10-10) hit Angel Berroa to begin the third inning, allowed him to move up on a wild pitch and score on a double by Mayne. Randa’s one-out chopper barely made it up the middle with the infield in, putting the Royals up by two.

Ibanez made it 3-0 with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly, with the others advancing when left fielder Jones threw home instead of to the cutoff man. But Lohse saved himself two more runs, ending the inning by snaring Ken Harvey’s sharp liner over his head.

Lohse, whose winning streak of four straight starts was stopped, settled in and completed 6 1-3 innings — allowing seven hits, three runs and a walk while striking out three.

“If I could take back a couple of pitches in the third inning, it would be great — but you can’t,” Lohse said. “We played a pretty good ballgame. I just hate losing at this point in the season.”

The Royals do, too, which is why they were so relieved to hang on.

“That was a big win for us, for sure,” Mayne said.

Notes: The Royals won for only the second time in their last seven one-run games. … Second-base umpire Rick Reed left after two innings with a foot injury. … Jones returned to LF for the first time since Aug. 7. A groin strain had limited him to DH duties. … Doug Mientkiewicz started at 1B after missing the last three games — and five of the previous seven — with a sore wrist. … The Twins are 1-9 in front of home crowds bigger than 30,000. … Minnesota’s 3-4-5 hitters went 1-for-11 with five strikeouts.