Edouard Julien homer touches off late rally in Twins' 8-4 victory over Royals

As much as the Twins enjoyed diversifying their offense Monday, scoring two runs from sacrifice flies and one run from a squeeze bunt, home runs are still nice, too.

Edouard Julien drilled a go-ahead pinch-hit homer into the right field seats in the bottom of the eighth inning, sparking a five-run rally that carried the Twins to an 8-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals to begin their final homestand before the All-Star break at Target Field.

Julien was hitless in his first five at-bats as a pinch hitter in his major league career. He expected to bat fourth in the eighth inning, but as he was sitting on the couch in the clubhouse, he heard someone yell, "Eddie, you're leading off."

The 24-year-old rookie hurried into the dugout to grab his helmet and his bat. He couldn't find his elbow guard, so he just picked up the closest one he saw.

"I was so rushed," said Julien, who belted a first-pitch fastball 413 feet off reliever Taylor Clarke for the Twins' third pinch-hit homer of the season. "I knew he had a good slider. I just didn't want to get to two strikes."

The Twins attempted to play for one more run after Julien's solo homer with closer Jhoan Duran unavailable after pitching in the previous two games, but they ended up with four more. With runners on the corners and one out, Michael A. Taylor dropped a squeeze bunt that scored Joey Gallo when Clarke bobbled the ball after fielding it. Then the floodgates opened with three consecutive RBI singles to give their bullpen a chance to exhale.

The Twins bullpen was asked to cover nine outs with a one-run lead. Griffin Jax, who was prepared to enter in the ninth inning, was set to pitch in his third game in a row. Before the ball made it to his hands, lefty reliever Brent Headrick surrendered a tying solo homer to the lefthanded-hitting Nick Pratto in an 0-2 count to open the eighth inning.

It was a moment that could have deflated a team that lost a late lead in Sunday's loss at Baltimore. Instead, the offense picked up its pitchers.

"I'm here today in the present," said Max Kepler, who had two hits and scored two runs. "I don't remember what happened yesterday. I don't remember what happened a month ago, a year ago. What happened today was fun, though. I want to do it again."

Despite entering Monday with only two runs in their past 23 innings, Twins hitters were upbeat about some of the changes they made since they were swept in Atlanta and manager Rocco Baldelli criticized the offense's production.

One way the Twins described their revamped player-led pregame hitters meetings, at least a temporary change, is a sense of more accountability. Players still have the same information as they did before, but it's up to them to run the meeting and break it down to their teammates.

"Sometimes the coaches have something and then pitchers will go with a different report than what the scouting report says," Carlos Correa said, "and you get players saying, 'You told me this, you told me that.' Now, we're all accountable."

Joe Ryan pitched well, and each time he gave up a run, his offense was there for him. Ryan, who surrendered five homers to his first 10 batters in Atlanta last week, watched Maikel Garcia swat his first pitch into the left field seats Monday. It was the second consecutive start Ryan permitted a homer on his first pitch, both fastballs.

Correa, who had a four-hit game, hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the first inning and scored on a Byron Buxton lineout. After the Royals tied it in the third inning with

back-to-back hits from Bobby Witt Jr. and Pratto, Buxton put the Twins up with another sacrifice fly in the fifth.

The Twins played some timely defense, too. Jose Miranda slid to his right to stop a ball near the third-base line in the fifth inning that turned into a force out. Taylor added a running catch in the gap — "one of the plays of the year," Baldelli said — in the seventh inning to take away a double.