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MINNEAPOLIS -- For the first time in 10 years, the Kansas City Royals will start August with a real hope of staying in the playoff race. They are clearly enjoying the ride, no matter where it will finish. Alex Gordon hit a two-out triple in the seventh inning and scored the go-ahead run on an error as the Royals won their eighth straight game with a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night. "This was one of the gutsier wins Ive ever been a part of," said Jeremy Guthrie, who turned in his seventh consecutive start of at least six innings. "We had adversity and had to battle. Guys stepped up." The Royals are above .500 at the end of July for the first time since 2003. At 53-51, they are two games over the break-even mark for the first time since May 17. They remained seven games behind Detroit in the AL Central and 4 1/2 games back of second-place Cleveland, the current holder of the second wild card spot. "Were just hoping to continue it every day," said Billy Butler, who drove in two runs. "Everybody in here doesnt want to be the guy that ends the streak. Thats the type of pressure we want to put ourselves in." Pedro Florimon homered in the fifth for the Twins, but he struck out with the bases loaded to end the sixth. In the seventh, with Gordon on third, the shortstop shuffled to his left to get his body behind a grounder up the middle hit by Eric Hosmer. Florimon failed to pick up the ball, though, as his momentum carried him past it. Gordon scored, and so did Hosmer one batter later on Butlers single off reliever Caleb Thielbar (1-1). Aaron Hicks took a bad angle toward Gordons drive off the centre field wall, and the ball ricocheted past him to let Gordon get another base. Guthrie (11-7) won his third start in a row and improved to 7-3 in his career against the Twins, including 3-1 this season. He surrendered six hits, two runs and two walks in six innings, and struck out five. The Twins started the sixth with three straight singles and tied the game on Chris Herrmanns one-out walk. But Hicks popped out to second base, and Florimon fanned on three pitches. The Royals have the leagues second-best team ERA. Their starters have allowed 11 earned runs in 72 innings over the last eight games. Guthrie had help for this one, particularly in the fifth one batter before Florimon went deep. Catcher Salvador Perez leaped out of his crouch to pick up a perfect bunt by Hicks, pivot and fire a straight-on throw to first base for the out. "I said theres no way. And then out of nowhere, ba-ba-boom, he got him. Phenomenal play," manager Ned Yost said. "That saved the game for us." Ryan Doumit and Trevor Plouffe greeted Kelvin Herrera in the eighth inning with doubles, slicing the lead to 4-3. Hicks added a one-out infield single. But Aaron Crow came in to strike out the last two batters. Greg Holland pitched the ninth for his 28th save in 30 tries. Joe Mauer took second base on a one-out single and a throwing error by shortstop Alcides Escobar, but Justin Morneau and Ryan Doumit struck out to end the game. "Theyre hot right now. Things are going their way. Theyre definitely into the games over there," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. Twins starter Kevin Correia gave up 10 hits over six innings, but he struck out three without a walk and somehow limited the damage to two runs on an RBI single by Miguel Tejada and a sacrifice fly by Butler. Tejada was thrown out at home on a comebacker to the mound, Hosmer was thrown out at third on the sacrifice fly, and Butler grounded into a double play. David Lough was caught stealing, too. The Royals are 9-3 against the Twins this season and 26-19 against the division. "I faced them early in the year. I threw well against them, and it seems like every guy on that team has gotten better since then. Now its a very good offensive team," Correia said. "Its a bunch of young guys continuing to get better. They have a good approach in what theyre doing. You cant really go out there and take advantage of them just because theyre kind of inexperienced." NOTES: The Royals rested 2B Chris Getz (sore left knee) and CF Lorenzo Cain (sore groin) again as a precaution, but Yost said they have both improved. He said he would wait until Friday to play Getz. ... Florimon has seven homers, just three off the team lead shared by Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham. Florimons minor league season high for home runs was nine. ... The Royals will send RHP James Shields (5-7, 3.09 ERA) to the mound in the series finale Thursday afternoon for his team-high 23rd start, facing Twins LHP Scott Diamond (5-9, 5.26 ERA). Diamond allowed just one run in six innings in his last appearance, only the third quality start of his previous 14 turns. Shields has lost twice to the Twins in 12 career starts. Carlos Martinez Cardinals Jersey . -- Charlie Graham stopped 67 shots as the Belleville Bulls edged the visiting Guelph Storm 6-5 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Albert Pujols Cardinals Jersey . Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next years World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden. The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon dOr to Nov. https://www.cheapcardinalsonline.com/1314t-kolten-wong-jersey-cardinals.html . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. Ken Boyer Cardinals Jersey . -- Jonathan Drouin gave Halifax the boost it needed to edge host Sherbrooke Phoenix 3-2 in a shootout in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Roger Maris Cardinals Jersey .Y. - Free agent outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, fresh off winning the World Series with Boston, reached agreement with the rival New York Yankees on a seven-year contract worth about $153 million, a person familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday night.DETROIT -- Miguel Cabreras body is making it difficult for him to run without appearing to be in pain. Luckily for the Tigers, its not keeping the reigning Triple Crown winner from swinging the bat really well. Cabrera hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the ninth inning, lifting Detroit to a 6-5 win over Kansas City on Saturday night hours after Royals infielder Miguel Tejada was suspended for at least the rest of this season for testing positive for an amphetamine. "Every at-bat, every game, you want to do something good, because I think people pay for that," Cabrera said. Cabrera has been slowed by a strained lower abdomen, injured hip and banged-up left leg. He was healthy enough to take a victory lap and looked relatively comfortable rounding the bases as a sellout crowd of 41,850 cheered. "When you hit a home run like that, youre loose, smooth," he said. Cabrera leads the major leagues with a .358 batting average and 117 RBIs and trails only Baltimores Chris Davis in homers. Aaron Crow (7-4) threw five pitches, with Cabrera hitting his 3-1 offering for an opposite field homer, his 39th, driving a fastball high and outside just over the right-field wall. "Theres not three hitters in baseball that could hit that pitch out of the ballpark," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Hes one of them. Take your hat off to him." Joaquin Benoit (3-0) gave up only one walk in the ninth for the win. Prince Fielder hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh inning and made a good defensive play for the third out of the ninth. Kansas City tied the game for a third time in the eighth inning when Emilo Bonifacio singled, stole second, advanced on a throwing era by Detroits backup catcher and scored on Chris Getzs RBI single off Jose Veras. "We couldnt get the lead," Yost said. Detroit starter Doug Fister gave up three runs and 10 hits over 6 1-3 innings. After throwing a season-high 118 pitches, he was replaced by Drew Smyly, who gave up a game-tying homer to Salvador Perez on a 1-2 count with two outs in the seventh. Kansas City starter Wade Davis allowed four runs on eight hits and lasted just 3 2-3 innings. Tigers manager Jim Leyland and catcher Brayan Pena were ejected in the fourth inning after a call went against Detroit and helped Kansas City tie the game. The Tigers were angry because Kansas Citys Alcides Escobar appeared to foul off a pitch with a check swing after the ball hit the dirt. The umpiring crew, though, ruled that it was a wild pitch and that allowed Chris Getz to advance from first to third base.dddddddddddd Leyland was ejected and went on the field a second time, directing a demonstrative rant toward first base umpire Bob Davidson. After Escobar hit a game-tying double, Pena had more to say about the call and was tossed by plate umpire Mike Muchlinski. Davidson took the blame for missing the call. "Thats really on me because I shouldve seen the ball change directions," Davidson said following the game. In the home half of the inning, Cabrera put Detroit ahead 4-3 with his 24th double on a hit deep into the right field corner, but barely beat the throw to second base. Cabrera, clearly, would rather play through pain than sit and hope to get healthier. In the first inning, he hit a grounder to third that Mike Moustakas bobbled into foul territory and still managed to throw Cabrera out. Kansas City scored two in the third inning on consecutive singles by Alex Gordon and Perez and tied it at 3 in the fourth after the disputed call that led to Leyland and Pena being ejected. The Royals tied the game for the second time with Perezs fifth homer in the seventh and Fielders line drive over the right-centre wall -- his 19th homer, and second of the series -- put Detroit back ahead by a run. Tejada will not be back in baseball any time soon, if at all. He became the third former MVP in a month to be suspended, getting suspended for 105 games. His ban came after Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez was suspended for 211 games -- hes appealing -- and Brewers star Ryan Braun got a 65-game penalty that will keep him off the field for the rest of the season. A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Tejada tested positive for Adderall, a substance the 39-year-old has used to treat attention deficit disorder. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because those details were not made public. Tejada apologized in a statement released by the players association, saying he made a mistake for taking a medication to treat a medical condition while re-applying for an exemption to use it. NOTES: Moustakas played for the first time since leaving a game Monday with an injured left calf and Jamey Carroll pinch hit for him in the seventh. "He was fine, but his leg was starting to tire a little bit," Yost said. ... Before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne chatted about racing with Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander, who said he has taken laps at Richmond International Raceway in his own car. ' ' '