The Minnesota Twins defeated the Houston Astros 4-2 on Saturday night. Eddie Rosario’s timely hit in the sixth inning scored two runs which proved to be the answer to get past the surging Astros. Saturday night’s victory ended a seven-game losing streak to the Astros and marked just the second victory in their last ten outings against the Astros.
“It’s how it goes I guess,” Rosario told the Star Tribune. “You want to hit the ball hard and get a nice hit. But sometimes you do things like that.”
Twins All-Star Ervin Santana lead the way for the Twins by pitching out of bases loaded jams to improve his record to 11-6. Brandon Kintzler threw a scoreless ninth inning to earn his 25th save.
“We got a chance, after a really nice win tonight,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune. “To come back and try and get two out of three.”
Throughout the series, the Twins have had many chances to score runs against the Astros. The series could very well have been different, but the Astros have found ways to get out of jams. In Saturday night’s game, it was different for the Twins.
“The ball has got to bounce your way once in awhile,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “It’s a part of the game that’s overlooked. The breaks that you get.”
Brian Dozier hit his second straight leadoff homer for the Twins, but Houston continued to break away by racing out to a 2-1 lead.
The Twins continued to strand runners throughout the game, but four runs was just enough to get past the Astros. In the fourth inning, Eddie Rosario and Robbie Grossman each struck out with two runners on. In the fifth inning, the Twins had loaded the bases with zero outs and they managed to only get the tying run after a double play.
Twins reliever Taylor Rogers produced his major league leading 22nd hold by getting out of a bases loaded jam.
“That’s your teammates runs out there,” Rogers told the Pioneer Press. “I try to do the same as somebody would want to do for me. It’s more fulfilling to strand runners than to have somebody else strand them for you. I have a job to do and some runners to strand.”
The Twins look to continue their momentum against the Astros on Sunday in the final game of the three-game-series.
By Scott Jordahl
