MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Mitch Garver‘s two-run homer in the eighth inning snapped a scoreless tie, and Kyle Gibson gave up two hits in eight innings in the Minnesota Twins‘ 2-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

Garver’s 11th home run of the season was deep to the berm in center field off Kansas City reliever Jake Diekman (0-4) after Max Kepler had walked. Minnesota has won 16 of its past 22 games and started a big weekend at Target Field with three expected sellouts and Joe Mauer’s number retirement ceremony on Saturday.

Gibson (7-3) struck out six in his longest outing of the season. Taylor Rogers secured his seventh save in nine chances.

Kepler reached base three times but the Twins’ No. 1 offense was stifled by Royals starter Brad Keller. Keller matched Gibson along the way, surrendering just three hits and striking out five.

Garver finally supplied the power Minnesota has enjoyed all season.

It was the Twins’ league-leading 133rd homer. Minnesota has a home run in 12 straight games.

BUXTON’S BRUISE

Byron Buxton was hit in the wrist by a pitch from Keller in the sixth inning but stayed in the game. However, Marwin Gonzalez pinch hit for Buxton in the eighth and Buxton was announced out with a right wrist bruise. The team said Buxton was day to day.

ROSTER MOVES

Both teams were active before the game. Kansas City optioned struggling first baseman Ryan O’Hearn to Triple-A Omaha and recalled outfielder Jorge Bonifacio. O’Hearn was hitting .188 in 56 games.

Manager Ned Yost indicated Bonifacio’s arrival was because the team is facing a slew of left-handed starters in the next two series and that his appearance will be short-lived with Hunter Dozier close to being activated from the injured list.

Minnesota swapped out right-handed relievers, sending Fernando Romero back to Triple-A and recalling Zack Littell. Manager Rocco Baldelli said Littell, mostly a starter in his minor league career, will be used in the bullpen going forward.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: Alex Gordon was in the lineup at designated hitter a game after being hit by a pitch in the shoulder.

Twins: Rogers pitched for the first time since June 6 after dealing with a back injury.

UP NEXT

RHP Jake Odorizzi (9-2, 1.92 ERA) starts for Minnesota in the second game of the three-game series, with Kansas City countering with RHP Glenn Sparkman (1-2, 3.58). Odorizzi has won nine straight decisions, the longest active streak in the majors, and hasn’t allowed a run in six of his past seven starts. Sparkman is 1-1 with a 3.15 ERA in four games as a starter this season.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Nicky Lopez hit his first major league homer in the stadium where he played college ball, Homer Bailey allowed two hits in six shutout innings and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 7-3 Thursday night in the first big league regular season game played in Nebraska.

The Royals won two of three over the Tigers for their first series win since April 12-14 against Cleveland.

The game at TD Ameritrade Park coincided with the buildup to the College World Series, which begins Saturday. All eight CWS teams were among the sellout crowd of 25,454 and participated in a pregame ceremony with the major league teams.

Lopez played at Creighton University, whose campus is six blocks away, and hit just one home run in 75 games at TD Ameritrade from 2014-16. The rookie infielder returned to Omaha 8 for 61 in his previous 15 games and sat out Wednesday’s game in Kansas City before going 2 for 4.

In his first trip to the plate, he lined Matthew Boyd’s 1-1 pitch into the right field bullpen leading off the third inning. Martin Maldonado followed with a double and came home when Boyd was called for a balk.

The Royals tacked on three runs in the fourth and one each the next two innings on their way to their highest run total since May 29. They had scored a total of eight runs over their previous four games.

Bailey (5-6) gave up a pair of singles, walked three, hit a batter and struck out six before Jorge Lopez came on to start the seventh. Dawel Lugo tripled past diving right fielder Whit Merrifield and scored on a groundout for the Tigers’ first run.

Boyd (5-5), who pitched for Oregon State in the 2013 CWS and threw a four-hit shutout against Indiana, lasted four innings in his shortest outing in six starts.

Merrifield doubled twice and drove in two in his return to Omaha. He was the hero of South Carolina’s 2010 national championship team, singling in the winning run against UCLA in the deciding game of the CWS finals in the last game played at Rosenblatt Stadium.

TRAINING ROOM

Tigers: SS Niko Goodrum returned to the lineup after missing one game after fouling a ball off his kneecap Tuesday. … Casey Mize, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 draft, left his Thursday start for Double-A Erie after 2 1/3 innings with right shoulder soreness, vice president of player development Dave Littlefield said.

Royals: 1B Lucas Duda (back) was reinstated from the injured list after missing 42 games. He hit .286 with a homer and three doubles in his 12-game rehab assignment at Omaha. …. LF Alex Gordon, who grew up 50 miles away in Lincoln and played for Nebraska, was out of the lineup with a shoulder bruise, the result of getting hit by a pitch Wednesday. … 3B Hunter Dozier (thorax) will take batting practice on the field Friday and is getting closer to returning, manager Ned Yost said.

UP NEXT

RHP Brad Keller (3-8, 4.29 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday night when the Royals open a six-game road trip at Minnesota. LHP Ryan Carpenter (1-3, 7.89) will start the Tigers’ opener of a three-game home weekend set against Cleveland.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Brandon Dixon broke an eighth-inning tie with a sacrifice fly that sent the Detroit Tigers past the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Wednesday night.

Miguel Cabrera also had a sacrifice fly for the Tigers, and Ronny Rodriguez hit an RBI double.

Jorge Soler drove in both Royals runs but flied out with a runner on to end the game.

The teams now head to Omaha, Nebraska, to play the first Major League Baseball game in that state Thursday night as a prelude to the College World Series, which begins Saturday in the same ballpark – also home of Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate.

The Royals need a victory to win a series for the first time since April 12-14.

After the start was delayed 24 minutes because of the threat of rain, Royals reliever Jake Diekman (0-3) walked JaCoby Jones leading off the eighth. Christin Stewart doubled under the glove of first baseman Ryan O’Hearn, sending Jones to third.

After walking Nicholas Castellanos, Diekman struck out Cabrera. But then Dixon sent right fielder Terrance Gore to the fence for the go-ahead sacrifice fly.

Nick Ramirez (3-0) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win. Shane Greene worked the ninth for his 20th save in 21 chances.

Neither starter factored in the decision.

Danny Duffy had a solid outing for the Royals. After walking his first two batters, he buckled down and completed seven innings, allowing two runs and four hits. He walked only those two batters and struck out six.

Tigers starter Daniel Norris gave up two runs and six hits in five innings with two walks and six strikeouts.

Cabrera drove in Jones with a sac fly in the first inning as Detroit scored without the benefit of a hit.

After wasting a couple of scoring chances in the first two innings, the Royals finally got a run in the third. Whit Merrifield stroked a leadoff double to the wall in left-center. He stole third and scored on Soler’s double.

Detroit came right back in the fourth when John Hicks and Rodriguez hit back-to-back doubles.

Soler’s two-out single knocked in Alex Gordon in the fifth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Tigers: SS Niko Goodrum was out of the lineup after fouling a ball off his kneecap Tuesday. “He’s sore. There was some swelling. He’s moving around. We’ll talk to him and see how he feels and go on from there,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. … INF Jeimer Candelario was set to begin his rehab assignment at Triple-A Toledo. He’s been on the 10-day injured list since June 4 (retroactive to June 2) with left shoulder inflammation. … RHP Jordan Zimmermann will pitch Thursday for Toledo on his rehab assignment.

Royals: 3B Hunter Dozier took grounders and some swings off a tee. Kansas City manager Ned Yost said Dozier was expected to take more swings in the cage Thursday. If everything goes well, he’ll take batting practice on the field and likely head out on a rehab assignment.

UP NEXT

LHP Matthew Boyd (5-4, 3.08 ERA) starts Thursday night for Detroit against RHP Homer Bailey (4-6, 5.90). Boyd’s last appearance at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha was in 2013, when he pitched a four-hit shutout to help Oregon State beat Indiana 1-0 in a College World Series elimination game.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Bobby Witt Jr. has spent his much of his short life around the major leagues. For the first time Wednesday, he was the star attraction at the ballpark.

The son of retired pitcher Bobby Witt was introduced as the highest-profile new member of the Royals’ farm system. Witt, who turns 19 on Friday, was the second overall pick in last week’s draft.

“It’s a blessing for me to be a part of this organization,” Witt said. “They really respect their players and their staff. I was really impressed with the respect they had for me.”

Witt has been compared favorably to some of the top shortstop prospects in recent history, including Alex Rodriguez. He said he looks forward to trying to live up to that lofty billing.

“That motivated me,” Witt said. “You can write all that stuff down on paper, but until I perform the way they did, I’ll never be satisfied. I’ve got to go out there and play my game. Maybe one day I’ll be there.”

The Royals have not announced where Witt will make his professional debut.

“He’s our kind of guy,” general manager Dayton Moore said. “(He fits) our city, our fans. I can’t say enough about his family and how he was raised. The way Bobby handles questions speaks for itself. The thing I’ve admired about him for a while is, while he’s the guy everyone gravitates to, he treats everybody else like they’re the first-rounder. That’s a great quality to have.”

Director of scouting Lonnie Goldberg said the decision to pick Witt was “easy.”

“He’s been an absolute blast to scout as a player,” Goldberg said.

Witt is the highest selection by the Royals since they took Luke Hochevar with the No. 1 overall pick in 2006. He received the highest signing bonus in club history. And in an added bit of pressure, MLB Network’s Jim Callis compared Witt to NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, saying he would have the same impact with the Royals that Mahomes did with the Chiefs.

Witt and Mahomes both grew up in Texas.

“Mahomes is a great player, and I grew up watching him. With him going to Texas Tech and me being an OU Sooners fan, I was always rooting against him. I watched him and Baker (Mayfield) put 60 or 70 points on the board.

“I’ve heard he’s done some great things off the field in the community as well. Hopefully I’ll one day make it to the major league team and I’ll be able to do the same things.”