*Photo from AP News*
The twinkies are still hot. Carlos Santana homered, Trevor Larnach homered and drove in two runs, and the Minnesota Twins defeated the Houston Astros with a 6-1 victory Friday night in Houston.
With the win, the Twins have now won two straight, 4 of their last 5, and 8 of their last 10, improving to 32-25 and 3rd place in the AL Central. They also handed the Astros their 4th loss in 5 games as a balanced offense and dominant pitching keyed this win.
Carlos Correa got the Twins on the board in the 3rd inning, giving them a 1-0 lead with a double to right center field that scored Willi Castro. Alex Kirilloff doubled the lead to 2-0 later in the inning as Jose Miranda scored on his sac fly. In the 4th inning, Alex Bregman made it 2-1 as he got the Astros on the board with a solo home run.
Larnach got the run back and then some in the 5th for the Twins, making it a 4-1 game with a two run home run to center field. One inning later, Max Kepler crossed the plate on a groundout from Manuel Margot, making it 5-1 Twins. In the 8th, Santana put the game away, making it 6-1 on a solo home run to center field.
Pablo Lopez was the starting pitcher and tied his longest start of the season, allowing one run on 6 hits and a walk as he struck out 6 in 7 innings. Steven Okert pitched a clean 8th inning in relief and Cole Sands did the same in the 9th.
Lopez said of his strong start that "In the previous starts, it felt like when people got on base, things snowballed and it was hard to limit damage and prevent runs, and I think today was just staying present, staying in the moment, one pitch at a time."
Ronel Blanco was the starting pitcher for the Astros, getting tagged for 4 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks in 4 2/3 innings. Parker Mushinski allowed a run in 1/3 of an inning before Seth Martinez handled two scoreless innings. Alex Speas pitched the next two innings, allowing one run.
Houston manager Joe Espada said after the team's latest loss that "Compared to the way we started our season, I think we are heading in the right direction. I think we’re playing really good baseball. The last five days we have faced some really good pitching, and we are getting after it. Our effort is there, our approach is there. We just got to continue to push. I think we’re playing better baseball than we did a month ago."
Game two of the series is Saturday afternoon. Joe Ryan takes the mound for the Twins as they try to seal the series win, while Framber Valdez starts for the Astros as they try to even the series ahead of Sunday's finale.
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