MINNEAPOLIS -- After pulling off their biggest win of the season on Thursday night against the White Sox, the Twins' veteran players tried everything to assure that the club wouldn't suffer an emotional letdown during its series with the Royals.

They tried to remind their teammates to keep taking this division race one game at a time. And they tried to make sure that the club could put the thrilling series with Chicago behind it.

But try as the Twins might, that emotional crash looked as if it could not be avoided.

One day after taking a half-game lead in the American League Central by completing a series sweep over the White Sox, the Twins appeared far from sharp in an 8-1 loss to the Royals at the Metrodome.

"Its one of those rough games," Denard Span said. "We just came off three emotional wins, and Kansas City just came out and swung the bat a lot better than we did."

The loss wouldn't be as costly as it seemed. The White Sox weren't able to put their series with the Twins behind them either, falling to the Indians, 11-8, at home on Friday night.

So for another day, the Twins were able to remain in first place by a half-game, and they reduced their magic number to three. Still, that fact didn't seem to be much consolation for the Twins.

"I can't worry about those guys," manager Ron Gardenhire said of the White Sox. "I said if we take care of own business, we'll be fine. We didn't take care of our own business tonight."

The Royals entered Friday's series opener having won 11 of their last 13 contests. They are currently in a push not to finish last in the division for the fifth straight year, battling with Detroit to stay out of the cellar.

And on this night, Kansas City looked to have more motivation than the Twins, striking early against starter Francisco Liriano.

Liriano had been Minnesota's hottest pitcher coming into Friday, going 6-0 with a 2.05 ERA in his 10 starts since rejoining the team. But the problem was he looked nothing like that pitcher in this outing.

The left-hander managed to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, but in the third, he couldn't avoid trouble. Liriano (6-4) gave up three runs without recording an out, allowing three straight hits to left field, and then a two-run single to center by Ryan Shealy.

He would be tagged for a total of four runs in the third. Yet it was the way that he struck out Miguel Olivo for the final out in the third that had Gardenhire believing that perhaps Liriano could right himself.

Liriano got through the fourth without giving up a run, but in the fifth, a one-out double was followed by Billy Butler's two-run homer.

"We faced Liriano three or four times, and we knew what he was going to try to do and we knew we were going to come out swinging like that," Butler said. "We stuck to our game plan and swung at good pitches -- we swung at a lot of pitches in the strike zone, and that's a setup for success. If you look at our September, you see we've waited 'em out and gotten good pitches to hit."

Butler's homer marked the end for Liriano, and put the Twins in a deep hole.

"The one thing we thought we had going after a big series like we just had, you have him going," Gardenhire said of Liriano. "You would expect Frankie to be able to get you deep into the ballgame, that's what he's pretty much done all year long. It's just one of those nights -- a clunker."

The six runs on 11 hits over 4 2/3 innings for Liriano gave him his worst outing in what could possibly be his last start of the season -- that is, if the Twins can't make the postseason.

"I'm very disappointed," Liriano said. "I try to do the best I can. I tried to make some good pitches and keep the team from scoring. It didn't happen today, so you have to keep with them."

The Twins, on the other hand, couldn't find any way to get to Royals right-hander Kyle Davies. The pitcher shut down the club from very early in his outing, allowing just one run over his six innings. Davies (9-7) scattered just four hits, one of which was Span's leadoff triple in the sixth that led to the Twins' only run.

With the way that Liriano pitched and the lack of offense, the slightly diminished crowd of 30,674 at the Metrodome didn't have much to cheer for during the contest until the score of the White Sox-Indians game was updated during Miguel Olivo's at-bat in the fifth.

The Twins were already trailing the Royals, 6-0, at that point, when Indians first baseman Ryan Garko's grand slam gave Cleveland a 9-4 lead over Chicago. The crowd inside the Metrodome erupted in a huge ovation.

Home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez called time for a second, allowing the cheers to die down. And the Twins who remember watching the scoreboard during the final week of the 2006 season had a good idea what was taking place.

"In '06, I was actually up to bat when that happened," Joe Mauer said of the crowd cheering when Kansas City took a lead over their rival that season, Detroit. "So I knew what was going on."

While it was of some relief that this ugly loss to the Royals wouldn't cost the Twins in the standings, the hope for the Twins is that the next time the fans cheer this weekend, it will be for the contest they are watching on the field.

"They just kicked our tails tonight," Gardenhire said of Kansas City. "We have to figure out a way to come out tomorrow and hopefully have a better performance."