Morneau, Twins beat Royals 5-4

Minnesota Twins Justin Morneau (33) watches his three-run homerun off Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Gil Meche head out of the park during the fourth inning of a baseball game Saturday, April 5, 2008 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

MINNEAPOLIS—Justin Morneau hit his first home run of the season and drove in four runs, and Livan Hernandez won his second straight start for the Minnesota Twins, a 6-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday.

Hernandez (2-0) pitched seven solid innings as the Twins won their second consecutive game against the Royals, who started the season 3-0. Hernandez allowed four runs and seven hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out two.

It's been an impressive start to Hernandez's American League career. The 12-year veteran has lasted seven innings in each of his outings with the Twins, averaging 79 pitches, and hasn't walked a batter. He gave up only two runs in Minnesota's season-opening victory against Los Angeles.

Matt Guerrier worked a scoreless eighth for Minnesota and Joe Nathan the ninth to record his third save.

Kansas City led 2-0, and Gil Meche (0-1) was off to a strong start for the Royals before giving up a three-run homer to Morneau in the fourth inning.

Morneau, Minnesota's one true slugger, was 1-for-17 heading into his second at-bat of the day before launching an arching shot to right-center to put Minnesota up 3-2.

Two innings later, Meche was in trouble again.

Matt Tolbert led off the inning with a single after Alberto Callaspo nearly made a great grab at short, but couldn't hold onto the ball. Two doubles and single later, Minnesota led 6-2 and the Royals pulled Meche for Ron Mahay. Meche gave up six runs and six hits, and struck out five.

Kansas City pulled to 6-4 in the seventh when Miguel Olivo doubled to score Jose Guillen and Alex Gordon. Olivo played his first game after serving a four-game suspension for a fight with the New York Mets during the final weekend of last season while he was with the Florida Marlins.