Twins Hold Off Royals

The first 20 Kansas City batters failed to reach base against Eric Milton. Then it looked like the next 20 would.

"Now," Kansas City's Mike Sweeney said, "I see why he threw a no-hitter last year."

Milton didn't allow a runner until Carlos Beltran's two-out double in the seventh, and the Minnesota Twins hit six homers in a game for the first time since 1993, then hung on to beat the Royals 13-7 Sunday.

"He was doing whatever the catcher asked him for," Beltran said.

Milton (1-0), a 24-year-old left-hander acquired from the New York Yankees in the Chuck Knoblauch trade, took no-hit bids into the sixth three times last year. On Sept. 11, he pitched a no-hitter against Anaheim.

"It's silly to say, but I've been in that position before and I felt relaxed," he said. "By no means am I used to it, but I have been in that position before, and it definitely calmed me down. I had great stuff today, at least 100 times better than I had my previous time out."
Coomer, Jones and LeCroy homered off Brad Rigby during in a four-pitch span in the sixth, the first time three straight Twins homered since June 7, 1982, when Ron Washington, Tom Brunansky and Kent Hrbek did it, also against Kansas City.

"I got the ball up and got away from what I do well," Rigby said. "I knew if I kept us in the game we could come back. I didn't."

Beltran, Jermaine Dye and Sweeney hit consecutive home runs for the Royals in the eighth two off Eddie Guardado and one off Hector Carrasco.

"It was nice to hit some balls over the fence," Minnesota manager Tom Kelly said. "Then they started flying out against us."

Minnesota hadn't homered six times in one game since Aug. 15, 1993, at Oakland.

"The ball was carrying pretty good today. We had a lot of guys swinging the bats real well, and so did the Royals," said Lawton, who was 3-for-5 with four RBIs and lacked only a triple for the cycle.

Kansas City trailed 13-0 entering the eighth, then had nine straight batters reach.

Milton allowed two runs and four hits in 7 2-3 innings, struck out three and walked none.

"Eric pitched a terrific game. He had all his pitches working, his cutter, his slider," Kelly said. "He was changing speeds masterfully."

Even though they didn't expect to recover from a 13-0 deficit, the Royals were relieved to break up the perfect game.

"He was always 0-1, 0-2. We never could get comfortable in the box," Sweeney said. "You never want to get no-hit, or even shut out. It's like a slap in the face."

Huskey had a two-run homer in the first and Lawton made it 5-0 with a three-run shot in the fourth off Jay Witasick (0-2), who allowed six runs five earned and six hits in 4 2-3 innings. His ERA rose to 9.31.

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