“We’ll have a long day at the ballpark tomorrow”, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.
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MINNEAPOLIS | Tyler Duffey pitched six effective innings and Minnesota took advantage of two misplays by center fielder Carlos Gomez in a three-run fifth that sent the Twins past the Houston Astros 3-1 on Monday night. “Unfortunate. Good for them”.
“Next thing I know, there’s five runs on the board”, Kuechel said. Houston counters with RHP Mike Fiers (7-5, 4.34), who tied a season high with seven strikeouts but took the loss against Toronto in his last appearance. But it cost Dozier his 24th home run of the year, as well as the Twins’ biggest second-inning rally – four runs, aided by a pair of Astros errors – of the season. “We lost the game because of that”.
Houston added single runs in the seventh and ninth innings on an RBI single by Altuve and a sacrifice fly by Springer. Rosario has hit.461 with four RBIs in six games as the starting center fielder.
“The last four days we’ve been kind of working on something different, just trying to be in the zone as much as I can”, Santiago said.
“You get off to a good start against a good pitcher and you’ve got your best guy out there and you’ve just got to wipe it off the slate”, Twins manager Paul Molitor said, with a hint of weariness in his voice. “It just seems that every time he hits the ball, it’s somewhere where nobody is at”.
“I can’t say I’m glad to see him back in the lineup, but on the other hand you want to play against the best, and he’s one of them”, Molitor said. Kurt Suzuki followed with a strikeout to end the inning against hard-throwing reliever Michael Feliz. Polanco has hit.378 with six RBIs in nine games since being recalled. Joe Mauer’s two-out walk brought Kepler to the plate as the tying run, but Giles fanned the rookie for the game’s final out. The Astros have scored 11 runs in their last three games and three or less runs in 10 of their last 14 games.
After the Twins tagged the 2015 American League Cy Young Award victor with four runs in the second, sending 10 batters to the plate as dark clouds rolled in and lightning flashed in the distance, the skies opened up and the fans hurried for cover.
It was the 10th time this season Minnesota went back-to-back, the third-most in team history.
He was coming off a three-hit shutout of division-leading Texas in his last turn, another sign he was getting back in a groove.
Dozier, the next batter, belted a two-strike changeup for his 23rd homer to give the Twins a 4-2 lead.
With a doubleheader Thursday, both teams will call up an extra player who can play in both games. Jorge Polanco poked a single up the middle with Plouffe at second base, and Twins third base coach Gene Glynn waved him around.
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Minnesota will send Ervin Santana (5-9, 3.62 ERA) to the mound in the third game of the series Wednesday.
