Sano's pinch hit 12th inning blast lifts Twins over Royals

Miguel Sano's pinch hit home run in the 12th inning gave the Minnesota Twins the lead and they held on to beat the Royals 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium Wednesday night.

Sano's bomb traveled 428 feet to left field. It was his 16th home run of the season.

After being no-hit for the first five innings, the Twins finally got something going against Kansas City starter Chris Medlen. Kurt Suzuki put and end to that with a solo home run – his fifth of the season.

Later in the inning, Joe Mauer singled home Aaron Hicks to put the Twins up 2-0.

Ben Zobrist responded in the bottom of the inning with a solo home run, cutting the Twins lead in half.

It was Zobrist again in the eighth, he led off the inning with a triple, scored on a sacrifice fly from Lorenzo Cain.

The Royals had a big threat in the 10th, with runners on second and third, Cain hit a grounder back to Blaine Boyer when his throw home sailed up the line and caused a collision between Ja'Rod Dyson and Suzuki.

Dyson was out, but Suzuki had to leave the game.

Twins starter Mike Pelfrey pitched pretty well. He went 5 1/3 innings giving up one run on five hits, while striking out one on the night, in a game where his back was against the wall.

Boyer (3-4) threw 1 2/3 perfect innings out of the bullpen for the win. Kevin Jepsen put the game away in the 12th inning with his 12th save.

Ervin Santana (4-4) will start for the Twins on Friday against Chicago's Erik Johnson.