Melky Cabrera became the first Royal in 11 years to get to 200 hits in a season and his 201st helped spark a big inning as the Royals beat the Twins 7-3 in Minnesota.
Cabrera hit an infield single and scored the first run in the top of the first. He hit another infield single that helped start a four-run sixth inning. He became the sixth player in Royals history to eclipse 200 hits and the first since Johnny Damon and Mike Sweeney both did it in 2000.
With everything that has gone wrong again for the Royals, their outfield appears to be set for 2012 and could be one of the areas that the Royals use as a building block. Cabrera, combined with Alex Gordon and Jeff Francoeur, lead all Major League outfields with a .298 collective batting average, 581 hits, 218 extra-base hits, 141 doubles and 937 total bases. The trio is also among the top four with 296 runs and 270 RBIs.