MINNEAPOLIS — Tommy Milone’s second start with Minnesota fell apart in a hurry.

After retiring the side in order on nine pitches to open the game, Milone came out for the second in a steady rain. He faced nine batters and was charged with seven runs in Kansas City’s 12-6 win at Target Field.

“Seems like every time I got a new ball, it was immediately soaked,” said Milone, who lasted a career-low 1 1-3 innings. “I didn’t have any issues with the mound, it was just tough to keep my hand and the ball dry.”

The start of the game was delayed for a half-hour because of impending bad weather, but the rain didn’t come until after the Twins grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first. There was a 54-minute rain delay in the fourth.

“The field was a mess, the mound was a mess, we tried to play through,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “They got it done, we didn’t.”

Milone (6-4) was acquired in last month’s trade that sent Sam Fuld to Oakland. In two appearances with the Twins, Milone has given up nine runs and 12 hits in 7 1-3 innings.

Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez and Josh Willingham homered for the Royals, who have won 20 of 25.

Kansas City sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven times in the rain-soaked second, keyed by two-run singles for Alcides Escobar and Nori Aoki. The Royals also increased their AL Central lead to 1 1/2 games over Detroit, which lost 8-1 to Seattle.

“With the weather and everything, we were pretty good,” Perez said. “We fought through it.”

This is the latest the Royals have been in first place since 2003.

Kansas City’s Jeremy Guthrie (9-10) lasted seven innings, yielding home runs to Joe Mauer and Kennys Vargas.

Oswaldo Arcia also went deep for Minnesota, hitting a two-run drive off Jason Frasor in the eighth for his 11th homer.

After managing just one run in Saturday night’s 4-1 loss, the Royals scored 10 or more for just the third time since June 17.

TRAINER’S ROOM

ROYALS: Setup man Wade Davis and closer Greg Holland were available on Sunday, a day after manager Ned Yost gave each reliever some rest.

UP NEXT

ROYALS: Coming off his sixth career shutout vs. Oakland, Jason Vargas (9-5) starts the finale of the four-game series on Monday. Vargas has a 0.86 ERA in three starts against Minnesota this year and hasn’t allowed a run in the last two.

TWINS: Trevor May (0-1) will try and bounce back after walking seven batters over two innings during his first major league start on Aug. 9. “He’s been like a raging bull out there,” Gardenhire said. “We gotta calm him down right now.”

GOING ALL OUT

Twins RF Oswaldo Arcia isn’t letting his batting woes affect his fielding. With Kansas City leading 9-4 in the sixth, Arcia sprinted far to his left and made a diving catch of a line drive by Omar Infante. Arcia slid to a stop on the wet grass just shy of the warning track and took a few seconds before getting up and heading for the dugout.

“Fantastic,” Gardenhire said. “Full stride, and going towards the corner like that, ball slicing away. That was a hell of a catch.”

The remaining fans gave Arcia a standing ovation. Arcia later hit a 414-foot home run in the eighth inning.

DROP OFF

Twins SS Danny Santana gave his team an electrifying start to the game, shooting a pitch to the wall in left-center and steaming into third base with a stand-up triple. He scored on a single by Vargas, and from there it all went downhill for the Minnesota rookie.

The next three times he came to bat against Guthrie, Santana struck out swinging. He grounded out in the ninth to end the game.