Royals seek to put another game between themselves and Twins

Offense remains elusive for the Kansas City Royals, but they at least finally have something positive to build on this week.

Following a spirited comeback victory, the Royals look to further increase their AL Central lead over the visiting Minnesota Twins on Saturday night.

Lorenzo Cain had three hits and scored the tying run in the eighth then the winner on Jarrod Dyson's groundball in the 10th to help Kansas City (45-32) snap a four-game skid with Friday's 3-2 victory.

"We definitely need this win," said Cain, who is batting .387 with 10 RBIs in his last 17 contests. "We lost four in a row and it was definitely tough to go through."

Owners of a 4 1/2-game division lead over Minnesota (42-38), the Royals have totaled nine runs and been shut out twice in the last five games. They had 10 hits Friday, but went 2 for 15 with runners in scoring position and are 5 for 39 (.128) in that five-game span.

Kansas City, however, has yielded two runs in each of the first two of this four-game series.

Joe Blanton (2-1, 3.14 ERA) allowed two runs, seven hits and struck out 11 without a walk over 11 innings to win his first two starts of the season last month. In his third, he was tagged for five runs, five hits and walked four in 2 2/3 innings of Monday's 6-1 loss at Houston.

"I take pride in not walking guys," said Blanton, who walked three in his first nine appearances. "I can't think of too many games where I walked that many guys. You throw some borderline pitches that don't go your way.

"Other than that, trying to fight command issues makes it that kind of day."

Watch the Twins-Royals game at 6 p.m. Saturday on FOX.

Blanton, who didn't pitch in the majors last season, is 5-6 with a 4.50 ERA in 11 starts against the Twins.

Joe Mauer is batting .407 (11 for 27) against Blanton, who also gets his first look at touted Minnesota prospect Miguel Sano.

In his first two career games, Sano is 3 for 8 with an RBI in the series.

Minnesota tries to avoid a fifth loss in six games to the Royals behind Mike Pelfrey (5-5, 3.81), who gave up five hits in seven innings of a 3-0 victory at Kansas City on April 22, but is 0-3 with an 8.85 ERA in his last four starts. The right-hander matched a season high by yielding eight runs with nine hits over two-plus innings of an 11-7 loss at Cincinnati on Monday.

"Your goal is to attack, attack, attack," he said. "I got away from that. I got away from a lot of things that made me successful to date. I got my butt kicked."

Pelfrey gave up eight runs and 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings of an 11-7 defeat at Texas on June 13, then allowed a run over eight of a 2-1 victory over St. Louis five days later.

"I think if I were younger, it would drag on with me a little longer," he told MLB's official website. "I understand that falling behind into bad counts and leaving balls over the middle isn't a good recipe. I just need to eliminate that and be better next time out."

Cain and Alex Gordon are each 4 for 9 when opposing Pelfrey. Omar Infante is hitting .233 this season but .410 (16 for 39) against him.