Minnesota Twins at Houston Astros

· Major League Baseball

Minnesota Twins

32-25, 16-12 Away

Final
6 - 1

Houston Astros

25-33, 14-16 Home

Trevor Larnach homers to back up a strong start by Pablo López as Twins beat Astros 6-1

“He pitched great and he had a pretty good changeup today,” manager Rocco Baldelli said of López. “He attacked with his fastball really well and I think he threw enough good offspeed pitches to get what he was looking for.”

Carlos Santana added a solo home run and Willi Castro tripled to help the Twins to their fourth victory in five games.

López (5-5) allowed six hits and a run with six strikeouts as he tied his longest start of the season. He bounced back after three tough starts during which he gave up a combined 25 hits and 16 runs.

“The last couple of games were a little rough (and) the box score (said) things that you never want to see as a starting pitcher," he said. “But it's just a testament to staying true to the process, not wanting to change too much and simplifying things.”

Alex Bregman went deep in the third inning for his third home run in four games, but the Astros couldn’t do much else on offense in their fourth loss in five games.

Castro’s triple opened the third before Jose Miranda walked. There was one out in the inning when Carlos Correa’s double to right field scored Castro to make it 1-0. Miranda scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Kirilloff to put Minnesota up 2-0.

Bregman cut the lead to 1 when he sent Lopez’s first pitch of the fourth inning off the foul pole in left field.

Castro walked with no outs in the fifth before Larnach made it 4-1 with his shot to left-center field off Ronel Blanco (5-1) with one out.

Max Kepler was hit by a pitch to start the sixth and moved to third on a double by Ryan Jeffers. Kepler scored on a groundout by Manuel Margot to extend the lead to 5-1.

Santana’s home run off Alex Speas made it 6-1 in the eighth.

Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut, allowed three hits and four runs while walking three in 4 2/3 innings for his first loss.

“He had the stuff to take us deep into the game,” manager Joe Espada said. “It was just one of those nights where their offense did a nice job of executing and staying in the game and getting some hits.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Twins: 3B Royce Lewis (severe quadriceps strain) went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in his fifth rehabilitation start for Triple-A St. Paul on Friday. Baldelli wouldn’t say when he expected him to come off the injured list, but said it wouldn’t be this weekend.

Astros: RHP Luis Garcia (Tommy John surgery) threw 20 pitches in a live batting practice session Friday. Garcia will go to Houston’s spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, next week to throw a couple more live batting practice sessions before beginning a minor league rehabilitation assignment.

Houston LHP Framber Valdez (3-3, 4.34 ERA) opposes Joe Ryan (4-3, 2.96) when the series continues Saturday.

How can I watch Minnesota Twins vs. Houston Astros?

TV Channel: Twins at Astros 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Astros: 58.1%

Twins: 41.9%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Dubón struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Singleton grounded out to shortstop.
	9th Inning	Meyers flied out to right.
	9th Inning	Sands relieved Okert
	9th Inning	Larnach grounded out to first.
	9th Inning	Farmer grounded into double play, shortstop to second to first, Castro out at second, Buxton to third.

Statistics

MIN		HOU
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
1	Hit By Pitch	0
9	Ground Balls	12
8	Strikeouts	7
6	Runs Batted In	1
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
6	Hits	6
0	Stolen Bases	0
4	Walks	1
0	Catcher Interference	0
6	Runs	1
1	Ground Into Double Play	0
1	Sacrifice Flies	0
31	At Bats	33
2	Home Runs	1
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
12	Runners Left On Base	13
1	Triples	0
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
2	Doubles	0
15	Fly Balls	14
0	Caught Stealing	0
166	Pitches	116
0	Games Started	0
2	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	0
16	Total Bases	9
37	Plate Appearances	34
324.0	Projected Home Runs	162.0
5	Extra Base Hits	1
4.9	Runs Created	1.6
.194	Batting Average	.182
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.516	Slugging Percentage	.273
.452	Secondary Average	.121
.297	On Base Percentage	.206
.813	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.479
0.6	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.9
4.9	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	1.6
42.5	Batter Rating	13.0
15.5	At Bats Per Home Run	33.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
4.49	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.41
.323	Isolated Power	.091
0.50	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.14
.108	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.029
.258	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.061
12.0	Runs Produced	2.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.6	Patience Ratio	0.3
0.2	Balls In Play Average	0.2
86.3	MLB Rating	67.8
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0