The Twins win on the back of a crooked fourth.
Bailey Ober allowed a leadoff homer to Jose Altuve, and only pitched four innings in what he hoped would be a return to form after last weekend.
But it wouldn’t matter, because the Twins were able to hang a crooked number on the board against a non-Chicagoan opponent. In another dam-breaking moment for the Minnesota offense, the lineup was able to plate six runs in a pivotal fourth inning, erasing a Houston lead and helping cement a series-evening victory.
The inning opened with a scare — Byron Buxton took a HBP off the hand, but would steal his away aboard second base, then score with his legs on a fluky bloop play out to left.
Houston would regain momentum by retiring the next two batters, but Jose Miranda came up with a huge two-out swing — his first homer since July of last year — to send the Twins up 4-1.
But the Twins weren’t done! Christian Vazquez hustled his way into a bang-bang two-out gapper double, prompting starter Spencer Arrighetti’s exit, and leading to two more Twins runs when Matt Wallner doubled him in, then scored on an ill-advised, hero-ball throw from reliever Tayler Scott on a Carlos Correa infield single.
When all was said and done, the Twins had hung up a six-spot in a crucial, script-flipping inning, tripling their scoring output from Thursday in a single inning.
In the visiting seventh, the Astros put forth their biggest threat of the afternoon when they loaded the bases with just one out for resident Scary Guy, Yordan Alvarez. Jorge Alcala, who admittedly had gotten himself into the mess to begin with, delivered a huge called strikeout with a knee-freezing slider in the zone.
He’d get Christian Walker to fly out and neutralize what could have been the kind of inning that flipped the script again, probably meaning that the title would be facing up (presuming that the script was face-up to begin with, before the Twins flipped it in the fourth, if you follow.)
This one proved quiet the rest of the way, although Houston continued compiling baserunners and outhit the Twin lineup nine to six.
Jhoan Duran was called upon for some work in the ninth inning, and cleaned this one up on eight pitches.
Minnesota improves to a mark of 3-5, tying the win totals for both the Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals here in the early going. Tomorrow, they’ll have a shot at winning their first home series of the year, and taking a set with the Astros would be nothing to sneeze at.
See you tomorrow!
STUDS:
RP Cole Sands (IP, 2 K)
3B Jose Miranda (1-for-4, R, 3 RBI, HR)
DUDS:
NO DUDS! TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN!