The Twins pitched well enough to sweep the series, had they been playing a lesser opponent. The Royals, who have not completely escaped a week-long offensive slump, scored just nine runs in the four games. All things considered, the split was a significant achievement.
"It's as big a game as you're going to play in early July," Royals manager Ned Yost said of Sunday's contest. "Very seldom do you get the opportunity to make it a two-game swing. And with this game we go back to 4 1/2 [games ahead] instead of 2 1/2. It was a huge game, and we played it like that in our mind.