Twins first baseman Miguel Sano racks up the hits, at the plate and in the field

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Miguel Sano seems to be hitting everything these days, teammates included.

Sano was 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI on Sunday, running his career-high streak of games with an extra-base hit to seven. His slugging percentage during the run is 1.107.

But Sano continued another trend on Sunday. In the fourth inning he bumped into second baseman Ildemaro Vargas, who had chased down a popup down the right field line. The collision caused Vargas to drop the ball, allowing Adalberto Mondesi to reach base. Sano was charged with an error.

In the fifth, Sano bumped into catcher Ryan Jeffers as he caught Jorge Soler's popup behind home plate. Jeffers at least is listed at 235 pounds and is sturdier than a middle infielder to handle Sano's 272 (listed) pounds.

This was after Sano bumped into Randy Dobnak while catching a popup on Saturday.

"We need to talk," Sano said. "Nobody said anything, so … I do what I can do. I don't want to kill anybody on the field."

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli would agree.

"Yes," Baldelli said when asked if he got nervous watching the collisions. "I do in every way and he's got a very deep voice that carries very well, and I want him to use it as much as he possibly can on all popups going forward."

Kansas City has played the Twins tough this season, a repeat of 2019.

The Twins won the season series last season 14-5, but eight games were decided by one run. The Royals seem to raise their level when playing the Twins, and it resulted in better success this season.

Their biggest improvement has been the bullpen.

Closer Trevor Rosenthal has distanced himself from Tommy John surgery and is throwing fastballs near 100 mph again. Righthander Josh Staumont has thrown 101 mph. Righthander Scott Barlow averages 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

"I think the difference is the bullpen," Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario said. "They have a better bullpen this year. I think they have good relievers, and in the future, they'll have a good bullpen, better than what they have right now."

On Monday, righthander Kenta Maeda will make his first start since flirting with a no-hitter on Tuesday against Milwaukee. It will be an important outing, as the Twins will be playing their 30th game of the season, as well as opening a three-game series against Cleveland.

Baldelli gave Maeda five days off between starts, which he also did once earlier this season. Maeda's career-high 115 pitches on Tuesday were just part of the reason for an extra day of rest.

"This is something we planned on doing at one or more points over the course of this stretch anyway," Baldelli said. "We were going to insert a starter or two along the way. We weren't sure exactly when we were going to do it, and then Kenta went with the long start and then it just fell into place where it just made a lot of sense to do it today."

Righthander Tyler Clippard was hit on the right triceps by a line drive off Whit Merrifield's bat in the eighth.

"Initial imaging came back good — negative, but beyond that we're going to probably have to wait and see how he's doing over the next few days," Baldelli said. "I can't imagine he's going to be throwing a baseball any time in the very near future, but that's all I can really say."

The Twins are discussing whether to bring in players to fill out the taxi squad now that righthander Sean Poppen and lefthander Danny Coulombe have been added to the active roster. The taxi squad currently consists of utility player Willians Astudillo and righthander Juan Minaya.