Edouard Julien hit a pinch-hit, solo homer to start a five-run eighth inning and the Minnesota Twins went on to beat the Kansas City Royals 8-4 on Monday night.

Carlos Correa tied a career-high with four hits from the lead-off spot and Byron Buxton drove in a pair of runs with sacrifice flies for Minnesota, which beat Kansas City for the seventh time in eight games this season.

Julien, the Canadian rookie second baseman, hit for Kyle Farmer to lead off the eighth and sent the first pitch he saw from Royals reliever Taylor Clarke for a no-doubt homer to right field. It was the first pinch hit for Julien, who was told he was pinch-hitting but didn’t realize it was leading off the inning.

Kansas City had tied the game in the top of the inning on a solo homer by Nick Pratto.

Clarke (1-3) surrendered five runs on five hits and retired just one of the seven batters he faced.

Minnesota’s Brent Headrick (2-0) allowed Pratto, the first batter he faced Monday, to homer to lead off the eighth. He retired the next three batters he faced, with two strikeouts.

Michael A. Taylor drove in the second run in the eighth as his bunt was fielded by Clarke with nowhere to throw. Max Kepler, Correa and Alex Kirilloff followed with three straight RBI singles for the Twins.