Minneapolis ? Brad Radke, as steady as anyone in the Minnesota clubhouse, fought tears and was forced to turn away when talking about his return to the mound became too tough.

Manager Ron Gardenhire shook his head and laughed at the thought of his team, 12 games back just 21â2 months ago, being tied for first place.

Jason Bartlett’s single to deep center field with the bases loaded in the 10th inning Thursday night gave Minnesota a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals and moved the Twins into a tie for the AL Central lead with Detroit.

“Who would have thought?” catcher Joe Mauer said after his homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth tied it and gave Joe Nelson his first blown save in 10 chances.

Kansas City (59-100) wasn’t able to avoid becoming the 11th team in major-league history to lose 100 games for a third straight year.

“A lot out of those have been one-run games that didn’t go our way,” said Luke Hudson, who scattered four singles over seven innings to lower his earned-run average to 5.12. “We weren’t always getting pounded. We would come up one run short. It has happened several times.”

Joe Nathan (7-0) pitched the 10th for the win, long after Radke’s impressive return and right before Bartlett’s big hit capped another wild night at the Metrodome.

Minnesota (95-64) was 25-33 when play began on June 8 and still in fourth place and 12 games back as late as July 15. Since then, they’re 46-24.