KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Danny Duffy acknowledged he will be buying steak and lobster dinners for several teammates in Miami after they made a plethora of outstanding plays behind him Sunday.

Duffy pitched superbly into the seventh inning as the Kansas City Royals nipped the Minnesota Twins 2-1 Sunday for their eighth straight victory.

"The defense killed it," Duffy said.

The Royals' winning streak is their longest since winning eight in a row in August 2014. They swept a four-game series from the Twins at Kansas City for the first time since 1975.

Duffy (11-1) won his 10th straight decision, holding the Twins to one run on eight hits over 6 2/3 innings before being replaced by Peter Moylan after throwing 95 pitches. He lowered his ERA to 2.66, which ranks second in the American League.

"It's a very impressive job with what he did today," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He got out some of big jams, bases loaded and nobody out. He made big pitches when he needed to. That was one of those grinder games that you have to grind out and that's exactly what he did."

Kelvin Herrera worked a 1-2-3 ninth to log his seventh save in nine opportunities.

Eric Hosmer's double in the sixth scored Lorenzo Cain, who had a two-out infield single, for the go-ahead run.

Ervin Santana (6-10) took the loss, although he allowed just two runs on five hits over seven innings, while walking one and striking out 10.

"When you face a team like that, that's very aggressive, you just have to watch every hitter and what they do, and then the next time you face them, you've got a little bit of an idea to what to pitch," Santana said. "You just have to keep the ball down for the most part and then elevate when you need to."

Left-hander Duffy navigated his way into and out of trouble in the second inning. After retiring the Twins on six pitches in the first inning, Duffy yielded a leadoff double to Trevor Plouffe, a single to Jorge Polanco and a four-pitch walk to Eduardo Escobar to load the bases with nobody out.

Duffy recovered by striking out Eddie Rosario. Next Kurt Suzuki hit a fly ball to shallow left, where Alex Gordon made a diving catch. Danny Santana hit a sharp grounder to third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert, who threw out Escobar at second base to end the second.

"I just went out there and kept it simple, followed Drew (Butera, catcher) and my team, goodness made, made great plays behind me," Duffy said. "It was phenomenal."

The Royals forged ahead in bottom of the inning, which Hosmer opened by dumping a single into shallow left. Hosmer stopped at third on Kendrys Morales' double to left. Hosmer scored on Alcides Escobar's ground out to Polanco.

The Twins tied it in the third when Robbie Grossman doubled and scored on Plouffe's two-out double.

Duffy again had to work out of a jam in the fourth, which Eduardo Escobar began with a ground ball single to center. With one out, Suzuki hit a high hopper off Duffy's glove for an infield hit, and a Duffy throwing error allowed Escobar to take second. Duffy struck out Santana and retired Brian Dozier on a fly ball to Cain in right.

Duffy gave up seven hits in the first five innings. He had not permitted more than seven hits in any of his first 18 starts.

"First and third a couple of times, one out; bases loaded, nobody out, for the most part I thought we did pretty well against him," Twins slugger Brian Dozier said. "I know only one run, but they made a couple good plays with runners in scoring position that their defense, I know Cain with one, Gordon with one and then Cuthbert with the ground ball from Danny. Three good plays and you flip that around and you put up four, five runs against them."

NOTES: The Twins called up RHP Pat Light from Triple-A Rochester. Light was obtained in an Aug. 1 trade from the Red Sox for LHP Fernando Abad. Light has a 14-18 record with a 4.35 ERA in 128 minor league appearances, including 49 starts. ... Royals RHP Kris Medlen, who is rehabbing from rotator cuff inflammation, allowed three runs on two hits, including a homer, in 1 2/3 innings Saturday for Triple-A Omaha against Nashville. ... Twins 1B Joe Mauer, who was hitless in 11 at-bats in the first three games of this series, was not in the lineup, although he has a .332 batting average at Kauffman Stadium. He grounded out in the ninth as a pinch-hitter. ... Jack Sock, who went to Blue Valley North High in the Kansas City area, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Sock won an Olympic gold medal in tennis mixed doubles. ... The Twins return home Tuesday after an off day Monday to face Detroit. Twins RHP Kyle Gibson and Tigers RHP Anibal Sanchez are the Tuesday starters. ... The Royals are off Monday before opening a six-game trip Tuesday in Miami, their first time to play in Marlins Park. Marlins RHP Andrew Cashner and Royals RHP Yordano Ventura are the probable starters Tuesday.