The Houston Astros scathed by with a 13-12 win on Friday night against the Minnesota Twins. Game two of the three-game series was on Saturday afternoon and the Twins jumped out to an early lead, putting up seven runs in the first three innings. Houston tried to battle back after a rough start for Hunter Brown but Minnesota won 9-3, tying the series and dropping the Stros’ record to 46-43.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The game didn’t start as planned for the Astros. Houston went three-up-three-down at the top of the first as Alex Bregman flew out into right field then Jeremy Pena and Yordan Alvarez struck out.
Minnesota went to work offensively at the bottom of the opening frame when Will Castro led off with a single. Carlos Correa reached first on an infield single, and then Trevor Larnach hit an RBI single into left field for the game’s first run. Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown loaded the bases with no outs when he hit Jose Miranda with a pitch. Carlos Santana struck out but Max Kepler hit a sacrifice fly out in center field to drive in another run.
The Twins extended their lead at the bottom of the second after the Astros failed to put a runner on base. Ryan Jeffers reached on an infield single and advanced to second when Brooks Lee grounded out. Castro brought in Jeffers with a double into right field. After that, Miranda and Santana went back-to-back with RBI singles into center field to put Minnesota up 5-0.
Houston put up their first run of the game at the top of the third. Mauricio Dubon doubled to the right and scored on a double by Bregman after Chas McCormick and Joey Loperfido struck out. Bregman advanced to third on a balk by Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan but Pena grounded out to the pitcher’s mound.
Minnesota scored again in the next frame as Byron Buxton recorded a leadoff single and Lee hit a two-run home run over right-center field to go up 7-1 through three innings.
Jon Singleton answered at the top of the fourth with a two-run shot in the same area as Lee’s home run ball to cut Houston’s deficit back down to four. Later on, in the sixth, Alvarez was hit by a pitch and was taken out for the remainder of the game after the inning and was replaced by Grae Kessinger.
Despite the early struggles by Brown on the mound over the first three innings, the 25-year-old right-handed pitcher battled back and pitched scoreless baseball over the fourth through sixth inning. Brown allowed 10 hits by the end of the third but allowed only two more over the next three innings and struck out six batters to keep Houston in the game.
Rafael Montero came in for Brown in the seventh and forced a groundout by Santana but Kepler singled past second base and Buxton hit a two-run shot over the left field wall to put Minnesota up by six runs.
Kaleb Ort made his Astros debut in the eighth and made quick work of the Twins batters as he struck out Correa and Larnach to give Houston one more chance to send it to extras or walk it off in the ninth.
The Astros failed to put up a run however as Dubon and Trey Cabbage were retired by Twins relief pitcher Caleb Thielbar and Loperfido lined out to second. That last out secured the 9-3 win for Minnesota on Saturday, dropping Houston’s record to 46-43 on the season.
BIG NUMBER: 21
There weren’t as many as last night’s matchup but there were still 21 hits Saturday’s game as Minnesota recorded 14 of those hits (10 in the first three innings) while the other seven came from Houston’s end.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Byron Buxton
Buxton helped seal the 9-3 win for the Twins on Saturday as he went two for four from the plate, scored twice, and had a two-run home run in the seventh inning.
UP NEXT: Game three between the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins is scheduled for Sunday, July 7th. The first pitch at Target Field is set for 1:10 p.m. Astro Launch will begin at 12:40 and the action can be heard on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.