The Minnesota Twins gave up a lot to get Pablo López.

He made it look as if he was well worth the price Wednesday night.

López pitched his first career shutout, a four-hitter complete with a career-high 12 strikeouts in the Twins’ 4-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

López (5-5) retired 15 straight from the third to the eighth inning, including a stretch with six consecutive strikeouts, to help the Twins post a three-game sweep.

Rookie Edouard Julien hit his second home run of the series to give the Twins the lead in the first, and Ryan Jeffers went deep in the seventh. Alex Kirilloff’s RBI single sparked a two-run third inning, Donovan Solano added an RBI double in the eighth, and the Twins won for the fifth time in six games since a humbling sweep at Atlanta prompted them to declare the season was starting over.

Kyle Isbel hit a two-out double in the eighth to end López’s retired-batters streak, but right fielder Max Kepler kept the shutout alive with a dive and a snag of Matt Duffy’s line drive to end that inning.

Alec Marsh (0-2) finished five innings with three hits allowed in his second career start for the Royals.

Jeffers scored from second on Kirilloff’s line drive to left field with a head-first slide, when M.J. Melendez’s throw to the plate hit him on the left side of the neck. Carlos Correa came home on the error charged to Melendez to make it 3-0 as Jeffers, a bit dazed, climbed to his feet to a standing ovation.

Royals: RHP Jordan Lyles (1-11, 6.68 ERA) starts on Thursday night to open a four-game series at Cleveland. RHP Tanner Bibee (5-2, 3.46 ERA) pitches for the Guardians.