HOUSTON— Pablo López threw seven strong innings and Trevor Larnach hit a two-run homer to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 6-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Friday night.
“He threw great and he had a pretty good changeup today,” manager Rocco Baldelli said of López. “He attacked really well with his fastball 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 hit a triple to help the Twins to their fourth win in five games.
López (5-5) allowed six hits and a run with six strikeouts to tie his longest start of the season. He bounced back after three tough starts, giving up a total of 25 hits and 16 runs.
“The last few games have been a little rough (and) the box score (said) things 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, then Jose Miranda walked. There was one out in the inning when Carlos Correa’s double to right scored Castro and made it 1-0. Miranda scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Kirilloff, giving Minnesota a 2-0 lead.
Bregman cut the lead to 1 when he sent Lopez’s first pitch of the fourth inning off the foul pole into 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 advanced to third base on a double by Ryan Jeffers. Kepler scored on a grounder 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 great job of 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 rehab start for Triple-A St. Paul on Friday. Baldelli would not 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 during a live batting practice on Friday. Garcia will head to Houston’s spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, next week for a few more live batting practices before beginning a minor league rehab assignment.
UP NEXT Houston LHP Framber Valdez (3-3, 4.34 ERA) will face Joe Ryan (4-3, 2.96) when the series continues Saturday.
