MINNEAPOLIS – Carlos Gomez went 3-for-4 with a double and two stolen bases and Scott Baker recovered from a sluggish first two innings in the Minnesota Twins’ 4-3 victory over Kansas City on Friday night, the Royals’ first loss of the season.

Baker gave up three runs on seven hits in 6 2-3 innings and Joe Nathan picked up his second save, but the news wasn’t all good for the Twins.

They lost right fielder and clubhouse leader Michael Cuddyer in the fourth inning to a dislocated and lacerated right index finger when he collided awkwardly with Alex Gordon on a head-first slide into third base.

Cuddyer was 2-for-2 in the game, but was taken to a hospital for X-rays.

Billy Butler had two hits and an RBI for the Royals (3-1), who lost a little momentum after a surprising sweep of the big-money Tigers in Detroit to start the season.

The perennially rebuilding Royals entered the night as the last unbeaten team in the majors and were three games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2003 season.

But the struggling Twins offense was able to get just enough against John Bale (0-1), who was making his first major-league start since Sept. 18, 2003, when he was with Cincinnati. He played in Japan for three seasons before signing with Kansas City last year, when he spent the first 89 games on the disabled list.

He was following in some big footsteps after Gil Meche, Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke shut down the heavy hitters in Motown to start the season.

Bale, the brother-in-law of Tampa Bay Lightning star Vincent LeCavalier, gave up four runs on 10 hits in 6 1-3 innings.

His counterpart, Baker (1-0), endured his own frustrations this spring when he missed time because of a sore shoulder and the flu at camp.

The Royals worked him into deep counts and fouled off plenty of offerings, scoring three runs and running Baker’s pitch count to 40 after two innings. But the right-hander settled down and retired 11 straight hitters, needing just six pitches to get through the third.

And after scoring just eight runs while losing three of four to the Angels to open the season, the Twins’ bats came through on Friday night.

Justin Morneau broke an 0-for-13 start to the year with an RBI-single in the third to make it 3-2. Mike Lamb led off the fourth with a double and scored on a squeeze play by Adam Everett to take the lead for good.

AP-ES-04-04-08 2300EDT