MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins are just trying to do the little things right now to get back to the team they know they can be when playing at their best. They’ve now done that for two games, and on Tuesday night against the Royals, all those little things added up to big things.

Big numbers on the scoreboard, that is -- a welcome return for the Twins after they hadn’t seen this kind of offensive output in some time.

For a second straight matchup, Minnesota drowned Kansas City in a flurry of singles, piling on, and on, and on, in the final two frames to turn another tight affair into the team’s most complete victory in nearly a month with a 9-0 drubbing at Target Field. 

The Twins matched a season-high 16 hits and, just as importantly, maintained their energy until the very end as they now sit just one game back of the first-place Guardians, who suffered 4-3 loss to the Tigers.

Between the polished pitching, relentless hitting and clean defense, this performance served as a needed contrast to the seemingly endless run of tight victories and sluggish losses from the past several weeks. It also indicated another step towards righting the ship after a demoralizing 1-4 road trip against the Dodgers and Angels in which the Twins fell out of first place in the American League Central.

“Maybe it has [been a while], but man, it feels good,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’ll enjoy this one.”

When the Twins are playing well, this is the kind of well-rounded team they know they should be. Sonny Gray set the tone with six scoreless innings of one-hit ball, Caleb Thielbar emerged from the bullpen to slam the door on a jam in the seventh, and Minnesota sent 17 batters to the plate in the final two innings to pull away for its largest margin of victory since June 27.

It also marked the club’s highest run total since July 24, and its most hits since June 5. The Twins had gotten away from this for a while, with bullpen woes flaring up at times, offensive inconsistency leading to periods of malaise and starting pitchers unable to get deep into the games. When surveyed at that time, the Twins didn’t necessarily know what ailed them; perhaps they were trying to do too much at the plate, as some of them identified.

“I don’t know [what it was],” Baldelli said. “I like it, though. It’s clearly having a plan, clearly going in there and using the whole field, knowing what to look for, knowing what to focus your attention on. Taking the balls -- trying to take the tough pitches to get to the ones that you want.

“I think we’ve seen a lot of really good at-bats. It’s not coming down to just hitting three-run homers and stuff like that.”

This version of the Twins’ roster likely isn’t going to win too many series with two-game stretches in which they total 23 singles -- their most in a two-game span since Sept. 2019 -- but games like these, with extended rallies and solid contact is to be found out of every lineup slot, help to serve as a reminder of what they’re capable of, even if they do come against a fourth-place Royals club.

“This is the team that I want to see every day,” said Luis Arraez, who notched his 400th career hit in going 3-for-5 with an RBI. “Everybody had a lot of energy today. That's why we had a lot of singles today.”

After Gray became the first Twins starter to pitch into the seventh inning since July 1, he sat at the top rail of the dugout and watched as Thielbar induced a groundout and fanned Michael A. Taylor and Nick Pratto to strand a pair of runners, yelling and pounding the padding with both hands as Thielbar pointed at him while walking off the mound.

Arraez and Gordon were as hyped up as they’d ever been as they raced to second base following their doubles in the seventh inning. In that way, this should be an exciting young lineup, anchored by superstars Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa, that should bring dynamic energy to every game with their bats and personalities.

They’re starting to show a glimpse of that again.

"Trust ourselves first,” Arraez said. “We've got a lot of talent here. … We are good. Everybody can play baseball. Everybody came here and enjoyed this."