KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals conjured up a little more late-game magic Wednesday night. This time, they didnt wait until the ninth inning. Shut down most of the night by the Twins Phil Hughes, the Royals finally broke through with six runs in the eighth. Nori Aoki drove in the go-ahead run, and Billy Butler and Salvador Perez each drove in a pair during the surge, sending the Royals to a 6-1 victory. "Thats kind of who we are," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Were a team that plays with a lot of heart, with a lot of energy and a lot of passion." In the series opener, the Royals were shut out until the ninth inning, when Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer for a 2-1 win. This time, it was a series of bloopers and infield singles that gave Kansas City the offence it needed in the waning innings. "Were just living on a high right now," said Jarrod Dyson, whose bunt single scored the tying run. "Were going out and having fun and playing like were 5 years old." Wade Davis (8-2) pitched a perfect eighth for the win, helping the Royals extend their lead over Detroit to 2 1/2 games in the AL Central. They have won 11 of their past 13 at home. Minnesota has lost four straight and eight of 11 overall. "Weve scored two runs in two games here," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Thats not going to win very many games." The Royals big rally began when Raul Ibanez led off the eighth with a blooper to right, and Mike Moustakas beat out an infield hit with a dive to first base. Two batters later, Dysons bunt allowed pinch runner Lorenzo Cain to slide home and knot the game 1-1. Aoki followed with a slicing single to left field to give the Royals the lead, and Butler and Perez added four more runs with two well-timed hits to provide plenty of cushion. "I can remember probably two hard-hit balls tonight. Thats how baseball is going to go," Hughes said. "Thats a team over there that finds a way and battles." Most of the game had been an entertaining duel between Hughes (14-9), who had won his last four starts, and Liam Hendriks, a former Twins pitcher making his Royals debut. Hughes gave up singles in each of the first two innings before finding his groove, allowing one other baserunner until his fateful eighth. Hendriks retired the first 14 batters he faced, and never ran into trouble until Kennys Vargas singled with one out in the seventh. Oswaldo Arcia followed with a double off the wall to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Hendriks, making a spot start for ailing Yordano Ventura, finished out the inning without any more damage. The Australian wound up allowing four hits while striking out five without a walk. "That was awesome," he said. "It was a good way to start off in Kansas City." CROWD BUILDS There was a crowd of 17,668 on hand, about 4,000 more than for the series opener. Yost had mentioned the sparse attendance Tuesday night, and he applauded the energy showed by the fans that turned out Wednesday. "It was electric," Yost said. LATE-GAME BLUES The Twins had been 41-2 when taking a lead into the eighth inning. Now, they have lost two straight in such fashion. "Weve got two pretty good starts back-to-back nights and havent found a way to win," Hughes said. "Those are games you really hope you can take." WADE IN THE WATERS Davis extended his scoreless inning streak to 28 2-3, best in the majors. Hes allowed two runs over his last 50 outings for a 0.34 ERA -- and one earned run in his last 48 innings. TRAINERS ROOM Twins: Twins RHP Ricky Nolasco was feeling better after gutting through a bout with the flu the previous night. Nolasco scattered three hits over seven innings in a no decision. Royals: 2B Omar Infante (shoulder inflammation) could return to the starting lineup Friday, Yost said. Christian Colon started in his place for the second straight night. UP NEXT Twins: LHP Tommy Milone makes his third start since arriving in Minnesota. He allowed five runs on 10 hits in 4 1-3 innings against Detroit his last time out. Royals: RHP Jeremy Guthrie allowed one run over eight innings his last time out in Texas. He faced the Twins 10 days ago at Target Field, lasting seven innings in a 12-6 win. Green Bay Packers Shirts . The Sioux Falls Canaries scored two in the seventh and three more in the eighth to come back from a 3-0 deficit and defeat the Winnipeg Goldeyes 5-3 in front of 6,769 at Shaw Park on Sunday afternoon. Custom Green Bay Packers Jerseys . Watch all the action unfold live on TSN and TSN Mobile TV at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. You can also watch the game live with the debut of Wednesday Night Hockey on TSN.ca and chat throughout the game with TSN. https://www.packersjerseysale.com/. -- Novak Djokovic benefited from an erroneous call and claimed he didnt realize he had broken the rules. Packers Jerseys 2020 . Algeria led 3-0 at halftime, but withstood a stronger South Korean second half performance to claim its first World Cup win since 1982 and move into second place in Group H with one match left to play. Defeat for South Korea means it must now beat already-qualified Belgium to stand a chance of progressing to the knockout stages. Fake Packers Jerseys . Marie rink got back in the win column at the Olympic mens curling tournament with a 7-4 win over the host Russian squad on Wednesday.WASHINGTON - For the second time in three years, the Washington Nationals won the most games in the NL — and then quickly exited from the playoffs. Now comes an off-season of questions about manager Matt Williams decisions and a handful of key roster choices, including what to do about Ryan Zimmerman, whether to sign Jordan Zimmermann and Ian Desmond to long-term deals, and how to upgrade an offence that fell flat in October. The window is not closed, Desmond said after the Nationals season ended Tuesday night with a 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants in Game 4 of their NL Division Series, but it is closing. At 96-66 under rookie skipper Williams, Washington finished first in the NL East by 17 games and had the best record in the league. Its pitching staff led the majors with a 3.03 ERA, as Zimmermann, who threw a no-hitter in the regular-season finale, teamed with Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister, Gio Gonzalez and Tanner Roark to form as formidable rotation. The lineup lacked superstar numbers, but it managed to finish third in the NL in runs. Then came the post-season. Just like in 2012, when it won 98 games, a top-seeded Nationals club lost to a wild-card opponent in the NLDS. The pitching was fine — Washington and San Francisco each scored nine runs in the series — although Williams use of his relievers will provide fodder for months worth of talk-radio segments. Should he have lifted Zimmermann with two outs in the ninth in Game 2? Should he have gone through Game 4 without ever using Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen, Craig Stammen or an available Strasburg? Should he have picked one of those pitchers for the pivotal seventh inning, when the Giants took the lead for good, instead of Matt Thornton and rookie Aaron Barrett, whose wild pitch let the go-ahead run score? Those are our seventh-inning guys, Williams said.dddddddddddd Thats how we set this up. The biggest problem of all in the playoffs, though, was the lack of runs. The only batters who produced against the Giants were left fielder Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon, who replaced Zimmerman as the teams third baseman in 2014. Rendon batted .400 in the NLDS. Harper hit .368 with three homers and four RBIs, which might raise an additional second-guess: Why was he batting sixth? The No. 3-4 hitters, right fielder Jayson Werth and 34-year-old first baseman Adam LaRoche, were particularly off. They went a combined 2 for 35 (a .057 average) with a pair of singles and nine strikeouts. They were hardly alone, though. The No. 1, 5 and 7 hitters — centre fielder Denard Span, shortstop Desmond and catcher Wilson Ramos — were 7 for 54 (.130) with 15 strikeouts, zero extra-base hits and zero RBIs. Its just frustrating to get to this point and not play to our capabilities, Span said. This will stick with me the whole off-season. When the Nationals eventually gather in Florida for spring training in February, the focus will be squarely on why a club so successful in the regular season hasnt been able to follow that up in the post-season. LaRoche might be gone, perhaps replaced at first base by Zimmerman. Second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, a trade-deadline pickup, can become a free agent, and deposed closer Rafael Soriano could be gone, too. As things stand now, the Nationals have a contract option to keep Span for next season, while Zimmermann and Desmond can become free agents after the 2015 season. Were a good team and we had a goal in mind, reliever Jerry Blevins said. This wasnt it. ___ Freelance writer Rick Eymer in San Francisco contributed to this report. ' ' '