MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins were no-hit for six innings on Thursday. They got their first hit in the seventh off Royals lefty Noah Cameron.

Apparently, they were just waiting for Cameron to leave the game.

Cameron was lifted after eight innings.

With two outs in the ninth, the Twins went to work on the Royals. And, in a you-had-to-be-here-to-believe-it moment, Kody Clemens belted a walk-off grand slam to lift the Twins to a 4-3 win at Target Field.

The Twins end up winning a series they looked destined to lose due to Cameron’s brilliance. At 55-55, they return to .500 after looking like they were scuffling to Seattle.

But now they look ready to take on the Mariners and its talented rotation for a three-game series right before Monday’s trade deadline.

Clemens’ blast was the Twins first walk-off grand slam since Brian Dozier did it July 15, 2018 against Tampa Bay.

Trevor Larnach struck out to lead off the ninth, then Victor Caratini lined out to shortstop.

But Ryan Jeffers was hit by a pitch, Royce Lewis singled to center, and Josh Bell walked. Matt Strahm came in to face Clemens, who hit an 0-2 pitch out to right-center field, setting off a wild team celebration.

The rally covered up some of the team’s offensive woes as they head to Seattle with Monday’s trade deadline in the headlights. General manager Jeremy Zoll said the Twins will be buyers over the weekend, as they are one game out in the AL wild-card race.

The Twins have scored fewer than four runs in six of their past seven games, and All-Star center fielder Byron Buxton is on the injured list.

The team is primarily seeking bullpen upgrades. That wasn’t the problem Thursday, as Twins relievers entered the game with a 3.10 ERA since June 28.

A three-game series with the Mariners starts Friday.

“Being away from home, is that helpful?” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “My guess would be, yeah, it’s less of a deterrent just because of the fact that you’re away. Now the other side of it is if you do worry about it, you can sit in a hotel room and worry about it.

“I don’t think there’s any good way to approach the trade deadline.”

The last thing the Twins needed before heading to Seattle was to see a left-handed starter on the mound. Especially when that lefty is Cameron.

In four starts prior to Thursday’s encounter, Cameron was 3-0 with a 0.77 ERA and 0.90 WHIP against the Twins. It’s hard to improve on numbers like those, but Cameron was out to do just that in his third outing against the Twins this season.

Austin Martin walked to lead off the first. He was thrown out attempting to steal. It was easy to keep a clean scorecard after that a Cameron buzz-sawed his way through the Twins lineup. He could throw all his pitches in the strike zone. He accumulated four strikeouts and six ground-ball outs through the first five innings. The Twins hit just three balls with an exit velocity of over 90 miles per hour during that time frame.

Shelton noted before the game that his starter, Bailey Ober, needed to, “suppress” contact, which he dealt with in his previous outing at Cleveland. He was successful at that during his first turn through the order. But the Royals Josh Rave doubled off the wall in right with one out in the third. Ober tried to get a 82.5-mph slider past Jac Caglianone but that led to disastrous results. Caglianone launched a 113.7-mph blast that traveled 438 feet and over most of the humans sitting in right field for a 2-0 Royals lead.

Kansas City pushed the score to 3-0 in the fifth when Carter Jensen scored from first on Rave’s second double of the game. Jensen easily advanced to third then scampered home on right fielder Clemens’ throwing error. It was a tough error for Clemens because Aaron Kreidler tried to catch the throw and attempt to tag Rave out but spun for the bag without the ball.

Ober ended up with a quality start, giving up two earned runs over six innings on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

Jeffers got the first hit off Cameron, lifting an 0-2 change-up into the outfield to lead off the seventh.

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