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MINNEAPOLIS -- Erik Kratz had played in only five games for Kansas City since being acquired from Toronto in a trade on July 28. But the big guy always stayed ready and that discipline paid off Monday night to keep the Royals rolling. Kratz homered twice after replacing an ailing Salvador Perez, and Jason Vargas pitched seven strong innings to lead the first-place Royals to a 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins. "You put your work in before the game as a bench guy to be ready to go in," Kratz said. "Some people could say well, Salvi plays every day, so why not take a day off? In my opinion, whats the point of taking a day off if that might be the day you come in and play?" Vargas (10-5) allowed one run on four this and struck out three, but had his scoreless innings streak snapped at 17 when Oswaldo Arcia hit a solo homer in the seventh. Perez had two hits and two RBIs before leaving in the seventh because of discomfort in his right knee, helping the Royals win for the 21st time in 26 games. Kansas City extended its lead over the idle Detroit Tigers in the AL Central to two games. Trevor May (0-2) gave up three runs on seven hits and walked four in 4 2-3 innings for the Twins. When Perez left, Kratz came in as a pinch hitter and broke his bat on a pitch from Anthony Swarzak, but still managed to muscle it over the wall in left field for a 4-0 lead. Kratz added a solo shot to centre in the ninth for his first multihomer game. The drives proved even more important when Trevor Plouffe hit a three-run homer off Aaron Crow in the ninth inning. "Its great to help the team out when you do get in there for any bench guy," Kratz said. Greg Holland came on for his 38th save in 40 tries. Josh Willingham had three hits and Alex Gordon and Billy Butler each had two for the Royals, who have won eight straight series for the first time since 1991. May made his major league debut on Aug. 9, and it was a rough one. He walked seven batters in two innings and gave up four runs. He breezed through four innings of his home debut, but walked the bases loaded in the fifth. Perez followed with a two-run single and Butler added an RBI single to give the Royals a 3-0 lead. That was enough for Vargas, who has dominated the Twins this season. He retired 10 in a row from the second through sixth while his offence built him a cushion. "Salvis a huge part of our team, but we have to keep him healthy and keep him in it for the long haul," Vargas said. "For Kratz to come in and step up and go big fly twice was pretty nice, especially when they were able to extend the game a little bit there. Those two home runs really counted." TRAINERS ROOM Royals: Perez is day to day with a sore knee. Manager Ned Yost said Perez tweaked a tendon in his knee while running the bases in the fifth inning, but was removed purely as a precaution. Twins: Byron Buxton, one of the top prospects in baseball, flew to Fort Myers, Florida, to begin his recovery after a nasty outfield collision at Double-A New Britain. GM Terry Ryan said Buxton had a stiff neck and some headaches, but nothing more serious. Ryan said he doubts Buxton will play again this season. "Were all fortunate it ended up the way it ended up," Ryan said. "Weve seen collisions in our day, but that one ranked right up there." UP NEXT The Royals open a two-game interleague series in Colorado. RHP James Shields (11-6, 3.29 ERA) starts the opener against LHP Tyler Matzek (2-8, 5.50). The Twins stay home for a three-game series against Cleveland. RHP Kyle Gibson (11-9, 3.96) starts the opener against RHP Trevor Bauer (4-7, 4.35). EARLY EXIT Twins manager Ron Gardenhire didnt stick around very long. When plate umpire Chris Segal called Joe Mauer out on strikes in the first inning, the mild-mannered first baseman argued that he fouled the third strike and it hit the dirt before Perez caught it. Segal disagreed, and Gardenhire came to Mauers defence before returning to the bench. Moments later, Segal ejected Gardenhire after the conversation apparently continued from the dugout. It was the fifth time this season and 72nd time in his career that Gardenhire was ejected. Tony Oliva Jersey . With the Rangers already leading 2-0, Carey Price was taken down early in the second period of New Yorks 7-2 pounding of the Canadiens in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final on Saturday afternoon. Jack Morris Twins Jersey . Last year, Islanders forward Colin Mcdonald released a "Do It For Colin" campaign to promote his teammate and friend John Tavares for the EA sports honour:The most popular sports voting video ever has to go to Chris Bosh who showcased his comedic abilities in his effort to get fans to vote him into the 2008 All Star Game:You can vote for TJ and other star players for the NHL 15 cover vote here. https://www.cheaptwins.com/1812t-byron-buxton-jersey-twins.html . The two teams will play through the completion of the game starting at 5pm ct on Wednesday. The regularly scheduled Wednesday night matchup will follow that and will now be seven innings. Marcos Diplan Twins Jersey . The two teams will play through the completion of the game starting at 5pm ct on Wednesday. The regularly scheduled Wednesday night matchup will follow that and will now be seven innings. C. J. Cron Twins Jersey . Granato was an assistant for the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last five seasons, and he was also part of Team USAs staff at the 2014 Olympics.FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The Patriots streak of 11 post-season games as a favourite is over. For the first time since the AFC championship game against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in 2007, New England is a playoff underdog — against Manning and the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game on Sunday. Tom Brady & Co. are willing to use that as motivation for the game that will send the winner to the Super Bowl. "We play with a chip on our shoulder," wide receiver Danny Amendola said. "We like to play that way." Count the Patriots out? Go right ahead, fullback James Develin said. "I cant really speak for everyone, but I personally love the underdog story," he said. "It just kind of keeps a little bit of the pressure off you and I just like to prove the doubters wrong." Brady sounded the first "woe is us" note during his weekly appearance on WEEI radio Monday. "I know when we played Baltimore nobody picked us to win," Brady said. "Im sure no ones going to pick us to win this week. Weve had our backs against the wall for a while. Really, the whole season weve lost players, and teams have really counted us out. "Weve got a bunch of underdogs on our team, and well be an underdog again." The Ravens were favoured to extend their four-game winning streak in the next to last game of the regular season. Baltimore was at home, but the Patriots won 41-7. Now New England (13-4) is preparing to go on the road again. And Bradys teammates figure if playing the underdog card against Denver (14-3) is good enough for him, its good enough for them. "If Toms going to embrace it, Im going to embrace it," New England running back LeGarrette Blount said with a smile. "Thats the leader of this team, and if thats how he feels, Im sure thats how most of the guys out here feel." In that loss to the CColts seven years ago, the Patriots held an 18-point lead late in the first half but lost 38-34.dddddddddddd Indianapolis went on to win the Super Bowl. That also was the Patriots most recent playoff road game. Since then, theyre 7-2 at home and 0-2 in Super Bowls at neutral sites. This season, they were underdogs at home against Denver on Nov. 24, but won 34-31 in overtime after trailing 24-0 at halftime. Broncos tight end Julius Thomas missed that game with a knee injury. Now hes back, one of five Denver receivers with at least 60 catches this season. "Hes a heck of a football player, a playmaker, go-to guy for them," Patriots safety Steve Gregory said. "He can create mismatches and things like that, so hes a good football player. But they have a lot of good football players." The 250-pound Blount creates mismatches as well — able to elude big linemen and run over small defensive backs. He ran for 166 yards and four touchdowns in Saturday nights 43-22 win over Indianapolis after rushing for 189 yards and two touchdowns in the previous game, a 34-20 win over Buffalo in the regular-season finale. "I can do a lot of improving," Blount said after watching video of the Indianapolis game. "Ive seen a couple of holes I could have hit, and Ive seen a couple of cuts I could have made. Im going to go out there and look at what theyre going to give me, and hopefully explode somewhere." Blount got off to a slow start this season, his first with the Patriots. It would be dangerous to underestimate him now, just as the Broncos would be unwise to put too much stock into their status as favourites. After all, Brady fooled all those teams that bypassed him in the 2000 draft until the Patriots took him in the sixth round with the 199th overall pick. "He came into the league as a big underdog," Develin said, "so Im sure hes used to that." ' ' '