Mandatory Credit: John Sleezer – Kansas City Star

The weekend series with the Minnesota Twins kicked off with a bang, Friday, when Salvador Perez hit an 8th inning triple to tie the game, then scored the go-ahead run on a Omar Infante sacrifice fly.

In typical Royals fashion, the team relied on steady pitching throughout the game and picked their spots offensively, coming up with key hits late in the game which ended up being the difference.

Kansas City has made their money playing clutch baseball over the past several season, evident by Perez’s big hit which ignited the capacity crowd.

Yordano Ventura was steady in his opening pitching performance, striking out 6, giving up 2 runs in six innings. Unfortunately for KC, Joakim Soria had another rough outing, giving up a home run which gave the Twins the lead for a short time.

Ned Yost was forced to bring on Luke Hochevar to relieve Soria, and the former No. 1 pick calmed things down and got out of the inning without any further damage.

Once the Royals made their offensive move in the 8th, the game was handed over to Wade Davis for his second save of the season.

The Royals are still struggling to find their consistency in the batters box, but continue to get timely hitting from one or two players in the lineup–enough to get wins.

Kansas City will head into the weekend with a 2-1 record, while Minnesota labors at 0-4 to start the season.

Ian Kennedy will get his first start as a Royal on Saturday. The newly added pitcher struggled during spring training, but is expected to be a solid rotation guy for a team hoping to defend their world series championship.