MINNEAPOLIS -- For the seventh straight game, a Royals starter got a quality start, a run in which the starters have posted a 2.08 ERA.

This time it was Brad Keller's turn, again. His seven shutout innings against the Twins on Friday night marked his third straight quality start. Keller and Minnesota starter Kyle Gibson locked in a beautiful duel. Gibson threw eight scoreless innings and yielded two hits.

The Twins got to the Royals’ bullpen in the eighth, though, when Mitch Garver drilled a sinker from reliever Jake Diekman for a two-run home run that gave Minnesota a 2-0 win at Target Field.

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Royals manager Ned Yost didn’t think Diekman’s pitch on a 2-1 count was all that bad.

"It was a good pitch,” Yost said. “It was right on the black. I mean, it wasn't elevated. If you look at the boxes, you've got the bottom box, the middle box. It was the middle of the middle box, but right on the black. It wasn't a bad pitch at all.”

But Diekman didn’t like the sinker’s location.

“It was just six inches up too much. If it’s lower …,” Diekman said.

Meanwhile, Keller, who has given up just five runs over his last 22 innings (2.04 ERA), gave up three hits and walked three, and he struck out five. He also benefited from two inning-ending double plays hit by Jonathan Schoop.

“I got myself in trouble once by hitting a guy and walking a guy,” Keller said, “and then it’s time to bear down, especially in a pitcher’s duel because you know it could be a one-run game.

“We really had a good game plan going in today and the sinker was really on today. I just used that to our ability and got some ground balls when we needed.” 

Another big moment came in the sixth when the Twins had two runners on with none out. But Keller struck out red-hot Jorge Polanco, and then got two short flyouts. 

“We knew they would be super-aggressive,” Keller said. “It was huge for [Polanco] to swing through that. And we got two popups after that.”

Keller said he finally feels in a groove this season.

“I definitely feel in command of my body right now and in command of my pitches,” he said.

The only other drama in the contest came in the fifth when home-plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt ejected Royals right fielder Jorge Soler with an 0-1 count. Soler took a fastball seemingly low and out of the zone, stepped out of the box, and then he motioned where he thought the pitch was. At that point, Wendelstedt handed Soler his first career ejection.

“You do that when you're real sensitive I guess,” Yost said of Wendelstedt. “For some reason, he's real sensitive. He thought he was being showed up. Of course, the pitch was six inches down. Soler told him it was down, and [Wendelstedt] said, ‘Well, it's only the first pitch.’ 

"[Wendelstedt] said it was down, and he told me that [Soler] pointed at the bat and showed him up. I didn't see that.”