Hosmer drilled a three-run double in the first inning on Tuesday night and made a great pick at first base in the ninth to help the Royals snap a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Twins.

Hosmer now has a career-high 81 RBIs to go with his .311 average and 14 homers.

But Hosmer mainly wanted to talk about the win, which reduced Kansas City’s magic number to 13 for an American League Central title.

“It’s big, especially against Minnesota,” he said. “It’s a tough team in the division. Anytime you get swept by another team in the division [the White Sox over the weekend], you want to come out and make a statement in the first game [of the next series] and obviously, it didn’t work out for us. But we came out and evened out the series and see if we can win it tomorrow.”

Hosmer admits that a four-game losing streak doesn’t faze the Royals as much as it used to in years past.

“I just think that we’ve done such a good job of taking the day-to-day approach,” he said. “I just think that we’ve learned from years past that those are times where you can’t panic. Just got to come and treat it like a normal day and we’ve been doing that for the most part. I think that’s why we’ve been so good and so consistent.

“I just think with the lead that we’ve built ourselves now at this point, dropping three, four games for us just wasn’t a big deal.”

The Royals are 12 games ahead of the Twins in the AL Central and 28 games over .500.

And while Hosmer wouldn’t talk about his offense, manager Ned Yost sure was willing.

“He’s really having a great year,” Yost said. “He’s just going to be one of those hitters in this league where he’s going to be one of the top-tier guys. He can hit for average and he can hit for power, and he’s a run producer. He’s got a shot at 100 RBIs, which is a real milestone.”

Hosmer did talk a little defense, as in shortstop Alcides Escobar’s terrific diving stop of a one-hop liner off the bat of Joe Mauer in the ninth. Escobar’s throw was scooped by Hosmer just in time for the out.

“Just Esky being Esky,” Hosmer said. “He’s been doing that ever since he’s had a Kansas City Royals uniform on. He’s a game-changer there. It’s a big play. They’ve got the middle of the order coming up and they got [Miguel] Sano on the bench. For them to get a leadoff hit is huge for them. He really just took the momentum and just took it right out of them for that inning.”

And what about Hosmer’s scoop?

“That was nothing. That’s just finishing the play,” Hosmer said.