MINNEAPOLIS -- Just when Joe Mauer was getting on a roll, pain forced an early exit. Nike Air Max 90 Homme . Mauer drove in two runs before leaving with an injury, Eduardo Nunez homered and the Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 10-2 on Tuesday night. Mauer extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a two-run double down the left-field line in the fourth inning, but was noticeably limping as he ran to second base. The team said he has a strained oblique muscle on his right side and will be evaluated Wednesday. "Ive been kind of battling this area for about a week or so, maybe a little more," Mauer said. "Ive been stiff and getting it loose and everythings been fine, but today on that one swing, ball down the line, it felt like somebody hit me pretty hard right there." Mauer missed almost a week earlier this year with a bad back and sat out the final 39 games last season with concussion-like symptoms. "Ive never had this happen before, so I hope its a lot sooner than what guys in the past have had," Mauer said. "Ive been feeling pretty good and getting some results, so its bad timing." Eric Hosmer had four hits for the Royals. Ricky Nolasco (5-6) earned his first win in five starts, allowing one run and eight hits in six innings. Minnesota signed Nolasco to a $49 million, four-year contract in the off-season, hoping he would help a rotation that had a major league-worst 5.26 ERA last year. Nolasco has struggled, however, posting a 5.49 ERA. He pitched more than six innings just once in his past 11 starts. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game that Nolasco had a good bullpen session last weekend in hopes of improving his mechanics to get better command of his fastball to set up his breaking pitches. Nolasco was better Tuesday, but remained far from dominant. He gave up six hits in the first three innings before settling down and retiring the Royals in order in the fourth and sixth. "I didnt have too many quick innings, but it was just kind of battling and I made some pitches when I had to," Nolasco said. "(My fastball) was better. Just trying not to do too much. Its a step in the right direction." Kansas City starter James Shields (8-4) was hoping a new month would change his fortunes. It didnt. In his shortest outing of the season, Shields allowed nine hits and five runs -- four earned -- in five innings. Although he struck out five, he was constantly behind in the count, leading to a 113-pitch outing. It was his first loss since May 2, a span of 10 starts in which he had five wins and five no-decisions. The right-hander has a 5.66 ERA in his past eight starts, and only twice has he allowed three or fewer runs. "I actually thought I made some pretty good pitches and they just found a lot of holes today," Shields said. "Its definitely frustrating that Im not getting outs. Im not getting my job done." Nunez homered and Sam Fuld had a two-run single as part of a five-run sixth inning for the Twins. Minnesota scored more than five runs for just the third time in 16 games. "We got some breaks," Gardenhire said. "They always say it evens out, so hopefully this is the start of it evening out." A miscue by the Royals gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead in the third. With Nunez on first, Chris Parmelee hit a popup to short left field with two outs. Mike Moustakas backpedaled from third base as left fielder Alex Gordon was coming in. The two nearly collided and the ball bounced off Gordons glove to put runners on second and third. Kendrys Morales drove in Nunez with an infield single. "I think Gordy just thought that he wasnt going to get there, then at the last second realized he had a chance to get there and they both get there at the same time," Royals manager Ned Yost said. An RBI double by Parmelee scored Nunez in the first, but an RBI single by Moustakas evened the score in the second. NOTES: Minnesotas Brian Dozier, who has started 79 of 82 games at second base, got the night off. He is in a 1-for-24 slump, and Gardenhire said he could sense some frustration. ... Raul Ibanez started in right field for Kansas City and went 1 for 4. The 42-year-old was signed Monday after being released by the Angels on June 21. ... Twins 3B Trevor Plouffe hit his career-high 23rd double. ... Twins RHP Kevin Correia (4-9, 5.08 ERA) faces LHP Jason Verges (7-3, 3.53) in Wednesday afternoons series finale. Nike Air Max 90 Essential Homme . During the morning loop on TSN, SportsCentre presents Purple Hearts, a TSN Original feature on Daron Richardson, daughter of former NHL defenceman Luke Richardson, who took her own life at the age of 14. Nike Air Max 90 VT Homme . "First, I would like to offer my deepest and sincerest apologies for any harm I have inflicted on University of Missouri defensive lineman, Michael Sam," the statement read.TORONTO – What a difference three and a half weeks makes. At about this point last month the Maple Leafs were embarrassed, disillusioned, and broken after the second serious drubbing in a matter of days. “It can’t get worse than that can it?” Phil Kessel wondered a day after his team was pumped for nine goals at the ACC. Completely unforeseeable then, the Leafs have emerged almost unscathed from that point, now pushing Tampa, Detroit and Montreal for a share of the Atlantic Division lead. They won for the ninth time in 11 games Sunday night (9-1-1) – fifth straight – edging past the defending champs in a shootout on the second end of a back-to-back. “I think we’ve definitely come a long way,” Cody Franson said after the 4-3 win over L.A., the 13th for Toronto in 20 home games. “We’ve paid attention to the details that make us successful and we’re becoming more consistent with it.” They’ve won in all kinds of ways since that low-point, but the Leafs have mostly relied on the league’s hottest offence, solid special teams and, of late, very fine goaltending. It’s not always been pretty or consistent in the manner conducive to long-term success, but this group has managed to stack chips in an unforeseen way since they were booed off the ice in mid-November. On this night Toronto built up a two-goal lead, fell back in a middle frame owned by the Kings, lost control of the lead and then rebounded to win on the strength of a power-play goal and perfect shootout effort by James Reimer. They did this just one night after outplaying the equally hot Red Wings in a game that showcased the kind of structure they’ve strived to play with more consistently. “I think it shows we’re growing as a team,” said Stephane Robidas, credited with 12 hits against the Kings. “We always talk about playing the right way and we want to do it for 60 minutes. And obviously playing two games in two nights you’d need to play the right way, you just can’t show up.” L.A.’s size presented a whole whack of challenges for the Leafs and they dominated the possession battle as such. But the home side stuck with it even after Marian Gaborik pushed the Kings ahead early in the third frame, tying the score on a James van Riemsdyk power-play goal. What’s maybe most impressive about this stretch for the Leafs is how little they’ve really gotten from van Riemsdyk and some of their top players. Power-play theatrics aside, the Leafs top line of Kessel, van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak has done little in the past month. Not only is the trio not producing offence at even-strength, but they continue to spend shift after shift in the defensive zone. The line held less than 30 per cent possession on Sunday and has been under 40 per cent for the past three-plus weeks. Instead it’s those like Mike Santorelli, Daniel Winnik and Nazem Kadri who continue to make contributions in their place. That trio not only produced two of the three goals on this night, but held L.A.’s top line of Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter and Dustin Brown off the board entirely. “I think this is probably the best our team’s been playing,” said Kadri. “These aren’t easy games to come out and play, especially off back-to-backs.” The Leafs have beaten a slew of quality teams during this hot streak, topping the Lightning, Canucks, Wings (three times) and now the Kings. They’ve outscored the opposition 44-25 in that span, the goaltending picking up steam along the way. Reimer, who made 33 saves Sunday, and Jonathan Bernier have combined to post a .957 save percentage in the past five games. “We’d like to keep this ball rolling in our direction and not allow it to go in any other direction,” Carlyle said. Five Points 1. Top Line in Name Only Continuing one of the better all-around stretches of his NHL career, Kadri led Toronto forwards in ice-time Sunday, also out-pacing Bozak in that department for the seventh time in nine games while adding his 10th point in the past 10 games. He and linemates, Winnik and Santorelli, were the Leafs most productive at playing in the offensive zone, thereby forcing the Kings top trio, whom they were matched up with, to defend. “They’re able to play their game and they’re able to create chances and possitive possession time and positive zone time,” Carlyle said. Nike Air Max 90 Ice. “So I think those are the three things that you look at. If you’re playing in the other team’s zone it’s pretty hard for them to score on you.” On the opposite end of that spectrum were Kessel, van Riemsdyk and Bozak. They were the Leafs worst at possessing the puck and have been for the past month. 2. Unsustainable Only Kessel has more points at even-strength among Leafs than Santorelli, who celebrated his 29th birthday with his sixth goal of the year and an assist. Santorelli has an unlikely 18 even-strength points and is on pace for 60 points overall, a mark that would smash the career-high 41 points he managed as a Florida Panther in 2010-11. It’s unlikely though that he continues to produce offence at such a potent rate. The B.C. native entered the game against the Kings with an on-ice shooting percentage (which measures team shooting percentage when a player is on the ice) approaching 13 per cent, an inflated level that’s higher than the career mark of Sidney Crosby. Kadri thrived with such luck during the lockout campaign. He posted 44 points in 48 games on the strength of a league-best on-ice shooting percentage of nearly 15 per cent. That number tumbled to a more reasonable level of nine per cent last year and a dip in production followed; Kadri posted a respectable 50 points, not close though to the near point-per-game mark of that fortunate season. Likely offensive cool-down aside, Santorelli has nonetheless been a valuable find at $1.5 million for the Leafs. He was recently added to both the penalty kill and power-play units. 3. More Santorelli Daniel Winnik offered this assessment on Santorelli. “I think probably the most unique part of his game is his cutbacks,” Winnik said. “I don’t think I’ve played with a guy with quicker turn-backs than him.” That’s an area of the game – quickly changing directions along the boards – Santorelli targets daily after practice and during the offseason. 4. 48 Hours Sunday’s affair against the Kings completed the Leafs seventh back-to-back set of 18 this season. They improved to 5-1-1 in the second game of those sets, an impressive mark. Robidas, on the road to 1,000 NHL games, says two games in 48 hours should be no big deal. “You’ve just got to go out there and play,” he said. “We’ve done it in the past. You play in the minors [and] you play three games in three nights. For me it’s not an excuse.” The early 5 p.m. start time required some adjustments to routines, though, including the always important pre-game nap. “You address your schedule accordingly,” said Winnik beforehand. “Just push everything back two hours pretty much.” 5. Mumps Sidney Crosby’s positive mumps diagnosis dragged the issue into the NHL’s forefront, even pushing Carlyle to get his shot Sunday. “They dragged me in,” he said with a chuckle. “I was the last one. I thought that I had it 58 years ago so I didn’t think I’d need another one, but I guess there’s a new strain out...” Players have been offered the shot and advised to take precaution where possible. Crosby was the 13th NHL player diagnosed with the mumps this season, Rangers centre, Derrick Brassard joining that list later in the day. Stats-Pack 20 – Points combined in the past 10 games for Nazem Kadri and Mike Santorelli. 12 – Hits credited to Stephane Robidas on Sunday. 7 – Number of times in the past nine games that Kadri has gained more ice-time than Tyler Bozak. 5-1-1 – Leafs record on the second game of back-to-back sets. 6-2-1 – Leafs record vs. the Western Conference. 13-0-0 – Leafs record when scoring first. Special Teams Capsule PP: 1-3 Season: 20.7% PK: 2-2 Season: 83.6% Quote of the Night “Looking back at that that was definitely a time of a little bit of soul-searching. We knew that’s not going to be acceptable, especially on home ice. The way we lost that game was very disheartening, but we took it the right way and were able to learn from it and it turned out to be a good thing I guess.” - James van Riemsdyk, on the Leafs response to a 9-2 home loss last month. Up Next The Leafs host the Ducks on Tuesday night. cheap jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '