The third inning started poorly and things snowballed from there for the right-hander. The bullpen has a 2.31 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, and opponents are hitting just 0.170 against them.
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Stars Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa each came a triple shy of recording the cycle as the home club put up 16 runs on 14 hits against a Minnesota (8-20) staff that allowed 14 runs over the first five innings.
Castro’s home run was knocked down by a fan and never made it over the wall into the Crawford Boxes, but it was called a homer, and after a lengthy review, it was confirmed. The Mariners pulled even in the third, but Houston regained the lead at 2-1 in the sixth.
Altuve is 7 for 9 with two home runs and two doubles in his last two games after matching a career high with four hits in Thursday’s 6-3 series-opening defeat.
The Blue Jays won 3-1 in 10 innings Tuesday on Justin Smoak’s second home run of the game. It was his third career leadoff homer but first since July 31, 2014.
His 6th leadoff homer of the year and 9th total is probably the best one he’s hit all season.
So it was 3-3 in the ninth when Leonys Martin punched a one-out single to left against Astros closer Luke Gregerson (0-1) and stole second.
CARDINALS 5, PHILLIES 4: Matt Holliday’s RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning gave St. Louis a victory over Philadelphia.
“Given our circumstances with the injuries, it’s opportunities for people to make impressions here, at least in the short term until we get some healthy people back”, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. With 87 strikeouts in 78 innings of work, the bullpen has been able to shut the door on a number of big games this year.
“The first two innings felt good, and I felt like I proved to myself that I could pitch up here”, Meyer said.
“I felt better”, Berrios said. “I just did like anybody here would do”.
Houston starter Mike Fiers yielded nine hits and four runs in 4 2/3 innings. It was the third straight loss for Hughes and the second consecutive game in which he’s given up three runs in the first inning.
Twins: 3B Trevor Plouffe (right intercostal strain) was activated from the 15-day DL before the game and started. Astros 2B Jose Altuve was leading the major leagues in steals (10) and doubles (13).
Those numbers look bad in any context, but they’re worse when you consider that Dozier batted exclusively in the top two spots in the lineup.
Fister allowed one run and only walked one over 6 2/3 innings in a 2-1 win at Oakland that snapped his personal three-game skid and gave him a 2.89 ERA in his last three starts.
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Fister pitched 6.2 innings in his last outing, surrendering one run, striking out five and walking one in a 2-1 win over the Athletics.
