KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Miguel Sano struck out in his first at-bat Sunday. In his next three at-bats, he drove in five runs.

Sano's big day at the plate and Phil Hughes' effective pitching into the sixth inning allowed the Minnesota Twins to beat the Kansas City Royals 7-5 on Sunday.

"My first at-bat, I didn't see the ball," Sano said. "It was hard to see."

Then he put on sunglasses and turned out the lights for any chances of a Royals victory.

After losing 15 of 19 games to the Royals last season, the Twins are 5-0 against them this year.

Minnesota (12-11) swept the abbreviated two-game series. Kansas City (7-16) has lost nine in a row overall.

"You've just got to have a short memory," said Whit Merrifield, who homered in the ninth for the Royals. "Turn around and come out and play tomorrow, because it's a long season and there's a lot of baseball left to be played.

"Regardless of how April was, this is a really good team. We know what we're capable of. We've just got to come out tomorrow and try to stop this skid run and get hot."

Sano hit a three-run homer in the third inning to erase an early 2-0 deficit. He hammered a first pitch from Jason Hammel with Byron Buxton and Max Kepler aboard after they both walked.

"As hot as Miggy's been, you hope he comes up in those situations," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.

Sano's singles in the fourth and sixth innings scored Buxton. Sano had his fourth consecutive multi-hit game, raising his average to .316.

"He's got off to a really good start," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He's very strong. We saw that the first game here when he took the ball over the right field fence. He hit the ball hard, and he's just swinging the bat well right now. He's hot. You make a mistake, he's going to hit it hard somewhere."

Hughes (4-1) was charged with four runs and 10 hits, including a Lorenzo Cain home run, in 5 2/3 innings. He walked none and struck out four.

Brandon Kintzler collected his seventh save of the season in as many chances but not before giving up a homer to Merrifield with two outs in the ninth, the first run he has allowed this year in 11 appearances covering 11 1/3 innings.

"Kintzler is off the perfection mark with his ERA, but he was able to hang on," Molitor said.

Royals right-hander Jason Hammel (0-3) is winless in five starts. He faced 19 batters and nine reached base -- six hits and three walks. He permitted five runs in three-plus innings.

"I'm trying to do too much, I think," Hammel said. "Trying to make a perfect pitch every time and working myself into bad counts. The hits in the fourth inning, I can kind of look away and forget about those -- bad contact and a ground ball. It is what it is. It's frustrating, and I'm looking forward to the turn of May, for sure."

Jorge Polanco's infield single in the ninth scored pinch runner Danny Santana for the final Minnesota run.

Kansas City scored two runs in the second on four hits. Eric Hosmer started it with a fly-ball single to shallow left and scored on Salvador Perez's double. Perez stopped at third on Alex Gordon's single and scored on Brandon Moss' two-out single.

Perez led off the sixth with his second double and scored on Alcides Escobar's two-out single, finishing Hughes' afternoon.

Cain hit a bases-empty home run, his first homer of the season, with two outs in the fifth.

The Royals ended April hitting .210 with a .270 on-base percentage.

"We've definitely got to get going," Cain said. "As a group, we've definitely been struggling."

NOTES: Royals DH Brandon Moss had two singles with runners in scoring position. He was 0-for-9 with a sacrifice fly with RISP before Sunday. ... Twins SS Eddie Rosario singled in the fourth inning to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, the longest for a Twins player this season. ... Royals LHP Jason Vargas and Chicago White Sox RHP Dylan Covey are the pitching probables Monday to begin a four-game series in Kansas City. ... The Twins are off Monday before opening a three-game series at home with the Oakland Athletics.