While the Royals’ offense was lighting things up, Kris Bubic was shutting things down.

Bubic pitched six solid innings, striking out five batters, allowing just one run on five hits, as the Kansas City Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 8-3 on Friday night. In a hotly contested American League Central division, these are the types of victories needed the most.

With the win, Kansas City improves to 24-25 on the year while Minnesota falls to 20-30 as their three-game winning streak is snapped.

As mentioned before, the Royals were red hot on offense.

Against the Rays, the Royals only scored five runs total in the series. In the top of the seventh inning alone, they scored five runs. They scored as many runs tonight as they did in their last four games in total. Designated hitter Jorge Soler notched his first multi-hit game in over a month. Meanwhile, right fielder Hunter Dozier snapped a career-high 0-for-32 drought at the plate. Shortstop Adalberto Mondesi went 2-for-5 with an RBI as well on the evening.

As far as pitching is concerned, Bubic continued his 2021 success. In his three starts this season, the south-paw Bubic has allowed three runs on 11 hits and has struck out 12 and walked seven in 17 innings pitched, with a mere 1.59 ERA. Starting pitching has been one of the more consistent pieces this season for the Royals, and it has led to them remaining in the pack in the early playoff picture.

The Royals will look to get back to .500 on Saturday at Target Field.