Astros Beat Twins with the Long Ball
Just a day after shutting the Houston Astros out by a score of 8-0, the Minnesota Twins failed to get much going and fell to the Houston Astros by a score of 14-5. The day got under way with the Twins hosting a press conference at 11 am Central to introduce their new free agent signing, Kendrys Morales. After that highlight, things went downhill from there.
With Samuel Deduno on the mound for the Twins, the scouting report suggested things could get dicey, as Deduno is a pitcher who typically lives on the edge. Deduno made it through the first inning unscathed but found himself giving up the games first run on a Carlos Corporan single in the second that scored Robbie Grossman.
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In the third, Deduno and the Twins found themselves getting bitten by the long ball for the first time of the day at the hands of Dexter Fowler. The long time Colorado Rockies staple took Deduno deep to right field on a 1-0 count to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Astros.
Deduno struggled to locate today, and found it to end up signaling his demise. Being at 62 pitches through just 2.2 innings wasn’t a good situation to be in. In the 4th, Ron Gardenhire decided to replace Deduno after he had loaded the bases.
Anthony Swarzak was summoned from the pen and didn’t seem to have his best stuff either. Singles by Jonathan Villar and Dexter Fowler drove in Robbie Grossman and Chris Carter for the Astros. Before getting out of the inning, Jose Altuve hit a sacrifice fly to make the score read 5-0 Houston.
The Twins got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with Eduardo Nunez taking Astros pitcher, Collin McHugh, deep to left center for his second home run of the year.
Minnesota worked a rally in the fifth with singles from Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham driving in Eduardo Escobar and Brian Dozier. At the conclusion of the fifth, the Twins had cut the Astros lead down to 5-3.
Houston didn’t take long to strike again, and in the seventh inning, Chris Carter homered to right on a 2-1 count that wound up only being the first grand slam for the Astros on the day. With the score sitting at 9-3, Minnesota answered in the bottom of the seventh. Willingham’s sacrifice fly once again drove in Dozier and Nunez singled to score Plouffe a second time for the Twins. Headed to the top of the eighth, the Twins found themselves down 9-5.
Behind the power of their two rookie sensations, the Astros weren’t done scoring. In the top of the eighth, George Springer homered to center for his second long ball of the series. His fellow rookie, Jonathan Singleton, homered in the top of the ninth, marking the Astros second grand slam of the game. Singleton’s home run drove in Springer, Fowler, and Villar to make the score read 14-5 Houston.
The Twins were unable to do anything in the bottom of the ninth and wound up falling 14-5 and losing the series to the Astros 2-1.
The box score for today’s game is available here.
Minnesota will look to get back in the win column tomorrow night in Toronto. The Twins are set to face the Blue Jays at 6:10pm Central. Minnesota will be hoping to avoid falling four games below .500 for the first time all season. Also look for Kendrys Morales to get his first start at DH with Josmil Pinto likely getting a day off.