In the end, Minnesota’s bullpen blew another one – after the latest strong start by Francisco Liriano.

This was a bad time for the Twins to stop hitting, though – not to mention make one big mistake on the bases.

David DeJesus hit the winning single in the 10th inning for the Kansas City Royals in a 3-2 victory at Minnesota on Thursday, keeping the Twins in second place for at least another day and wasting eight impressive innings by Liriano.

“We didn’t score enough runs today. That’s the bottom line. Our pitching was great,” catcher Mike Redmond said.

Liriano’s longest start since July 28, 2006, which matched the second-longest outing of his career, wasn’t enough.

Matt Guerrier (6-8) gave up two one-out singles in the 10th before DeJesus hit the first pitch from Dennys Reyes into left field for the lead, putting relievers on the hook for eight of the team’s last 11 losses. The Twins have lost 12 of their last 18 overall.

The seeds of defeat were sewn long before they lost for the fifth time in their last six extra-inning games, however. Minnesota, by far the best in the majors this year with runners in scoring position, squandered several opportunities to build a healthy lead against starter Brandon Duckworth and reliever Ron Mahay.

After Carlos Gomez gave the Twins a 2-1 lead with a one-out RBI single in the second, he took a lead off first base and fell for Duckworth’s slide step, froze, and stumbled. He got into a rundown and was eventually tagged out trying to dive back into the bag.

“Just looked like he was not paying much attention,” an upset manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He just kind of jumped out there.”

Gomez said he wasn’t trying to steal.

“It happens. Nobody wants to be in a situation like this,” Gomez said.