KANSAS CITY -- Royals reliever Wily Peralta had been dominant over his past 13 outings, posting a 0.71 ERA. But on Saturday, Peralta got in trouble early and couldn’t escape damage.

C.J. Cron and Eddie Rosario each delivered RBI hits in the 10th inning off Peralta as the Twins held off the Royals, 5-3, on Saturday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. It was the second straight tough loss for the Royals, who yielded a 6-3 lead Friday in an 8-7 defeat.

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Peralta gave up a leadoff single to Luis Arraez in the 10th, and the inning turned for the worse for Peralta when Jake Cave, attempting to bunt, was hit by a pitch. After Jorge Polanco flied out, Cron delivered his eventual game-winner.

“I was just trying to go down and away with the first guy, and he went the other way and got a hit,” Peralta said. “Then I try to go down and in to the next guy and hit him. That’s the way it goes. I didn’t have my best stuff. I didn’t execute.”

Peralta said the inning likely would have been different if not for the hit batter.

“It changes things,” Peralta said. “He’s just giving me an out. If you got a guy on second and one out, and then I get a popup for two outs, it changes how I pitch [to Cron]. I still have to execute pitches, but I hung a breaking ball to Cron.”

The Royals had a chance to win it in the ninth, as pinch-runner Terrance Gore stole second with one out. But Cam Gallagher struck out, and after Whit Merrifield was intentionally walked, Nicky Lopez flied out.

The Royals, trailing 3-0 entering the bottom of the eighth, rallied against starter Jose Berrios, who gave up Humberto Arteaga’s first big league hit and then walked Gallagher. Berrios then left with a blister on his right ring finger.

Taylor Rogers came in to relieve and gave up a run-scoring double to Alex Gordon and a two-run single to All-Star Game starter candidate Hunter Dozier.

Royals starter Danny Duffy was superb for seven innings, giving up just one run in that span -- a monstrous home run by Miguel Sanó, who belted a 2-0 four-seamer an estimated 454 feet in the second inning.

But trailing 1-0 entering the eighth, Duffy gave up two more home runs. The first came on a 0-1 slider to Cave, who reached the seats in right for his first homer this season. Two batters later, Cron jumped on another 0-1 slider and crushed one to left.

“The solo home runs got him,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “None of them were, like, extremely horrible pitches, but they were all in their strengths. They weren’t, like, hanging breaking balls. They weren’t pitches up in the zone. But they were pitches to each individual hitter’s strength, and they ended up not missing them.”

Added Duffy, “I’ve got to be better at getting ahead in the count. They were very aggressive, and that made me look more efficient than I really was. I don’t think I had my best stuff today.

“I just babied that slider to Cave, and he got me. Then I really tried to get through a slider to Cron, and it just stayed straight. I’ve got to put us in a better position than that. If I do, we got Ian [Kennedy] coming into the ninth with the lead, and he’s been lights out.”

The Royals had a great opportunity to do damage in the first inning off Berrios.

Merrifield doubled down the right-field line and went to third on an infield single by Lopez.

The Twins then turned a strange double play. Gordon hit a soft roller to Cron at first base as Merrifield broke for the plate. Cron tagged Gordon out as Merrifield stopped. That allowed Cron to toss the ball to catcher Willians Astudillo, who got Merrifield in a rundown.

Merrifield was tagged out as Lopez took third. Jorge Soler then hit a soft liner to first for the third out.

“It didn’t break down,” Yost said. “It’s a tough, tough read. … The only thing you can do if you’re Whit is hesitate for a split second. But there was no breakdown on that play. It’s a do-or-die play.

“You’re going to get two turned one way or another. There’s just no way around it.”