Nelson Cruz hit two of Minnesota’s four home runs and matched his season high with five RBIs during an 8-5 Minnesota Twins victory on Thursday night over the Kansas City Royals to keep their American League Central lead at four games — with nine games to go.

Miguel Sanó homered and hit the tiebreaking RBI double in the fifth following the ejection of Royals starter Mike Montgomery, who started that inning by giving up a home run to Mitch Garver.

The Twins have 293 homers, one more than New York in the chase for the major league record set last season by the Yankees with 267.

The home run derby bailed out Twins starter Kyle Gibson. He walked in back-to-back runs in the second inning before being removed with a 3-0 deficit.

Lewis Thorpe (4-2), the second of six relievers, worked four innings for the win. Tyler Duffey pitched a perfect seventh, stretching his baseball-best scoreless streak to 20 2/3 straight innings. Taylor Rogers recorded his 28 saves with two strikeouts in a perfect ninth.