Morales homers twice, Royals score 7 in 9th to beat Twins

A night after hitting three homers to celebrate Labor Day versus the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins slugger continued his improbable second half surge by hitting his 39 home run on the year, which moves him into second place on Major League leaderboards for long balls this year, behind only Mark Trumbo’s 41.

Jarrod Dyson had three hits and scored three times for Kansas City, which won for the second time in six games and stayed on the edge of the AL wild-card race.

The Royal are 4-5 in their last nine games and have lost those five games by a total of five runs. Colon has a.228 average with five extra-base hits and 10 RBIs in 127 at-bats over 47 games with Kansas City this season.

Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton slid safely into home against Kansas City Royals catcher Drew Butera, left, during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, in Minneapolis.

Kennedy struggled with command, allowing four earned runs in 5 1-3 innings but is 4-0 in his past five starts. He struck out 10 Royals and surrendered an unearned run in seven frames August 21 but suffered a tough loss to fall to 5-9 lifetime against one of his three former teams. KC starter Dillon Gee allowed all three runs on three solo homers over six frames.

TIGERS 5, WHITE SOX 3, 11 INNINGS Justin Upton hit a three-run home run in the 11th inning to lift Detroit over Chicago for its 11th win in 14 games.

Berrios looked like he would get through the fifth, giving up a leadoff single before coaxing a fielder’s choice ground out and striking out Paulo Orlando, but the rookie right hander walked Hosmer to keep the inning alive, setting up Morales’ massive shot to the concourse beyond the right-field fence. RHP Tyler Duffey (8-10, 6.24 ERA) pitches for the Twins, against RHP Danny Salazar (11-6, 3.78 ERA) of the Indians.

Anthony Rizzo hit two home runs and Miguel Montero added one for the Cubs. Sano’s presence means Plouffe might have played his last game for the team that drafted him in the first round in 2004.

Royals: OF Lorenzo Cain missed his sixth straight game because of left wrist inflammation.

ROCKIES 6, GIANTS 0 Chad Bettis threw a two-hitter for his first career complete game, Carlos Gonzalez hit a grand slam and the Rockies beat the slumping Giants. Matt Strahm entered with two outs and gave up a go-ahead RBI single to Eduardo Escobar.

Alex Wimmers (1-1) pitched an inning of shutout relief to secure his first major league victory.