It only took one swing for the momentum to flip to the Minnesota Twins.
Jose Miranda hit a three-run home run during a six-run fourth inning that powered the Twins to a 6-1 victory over
the Houston Astros in front of an announced crowd of 16,082 at Target Field in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon.
Trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning, Byron Buxton led off and was hit by a pitch from Spencer Arrighetti and stole second before Trevor Larnach was walked. Ty France singled to left field, and Jose Altuve bobbled the throw, allowing Buxton to score from second and tie the game. Two outs later, Miranda's 389-foot shot to left-center gave the Twins (3-5) a 4-1 lead.
YES WAY JOSE!!! pic.twitter.com/EAl8Y3hudh
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 5, 2025
Christian Vazquez and Matt Wallner then hit back-to-back doubles, the latter of which brought Vazquez home for another run. Minnesota added one more when Carlos Correa hit an infield single and Astros reliever Tayler Scott misfired on the throw to first, allowing Wallner to score for a 6-1 Twins lead. Those were all the runs needed to seal their first home win.
Bailey Ober made his second start of the season, and he mostly recovered nicely from his disastrous first outing. While Ober gave up a leadoff homer to Altuve to start the game, he put up 0s after that with three shutout innings. He threw
84 pitches across four innings in all, allowing just the one run off three hits while walking a pair and fanning five batters.
Ober lowered his earned-run average to 12.15 from 27.00 after his first start.
The Astros (3-5) pulled Arrighetti when the Twins were in the midst of the onslaught. After no-hitting the Twins through three innings, he ultimately went just 3 2/3, allowing five runs off three hits and three walks while fanning three in a loss.
Ex-Twin Steven Okert struck out the side — Willi Castro, Eddy Julien and Miranda — against his former team in the eighth.
Twins relievers held the Astros quiet the rest of the way. Louis Varland pitched a shutout fifth inning; Cole Sands tossed a 1-2-3 sixth and picked up the win; Jorge Alcala evaded some trouble to put up a 0 in the seventh; Justin Topa threw a shutout eighth; and Jhoan Duran closed it with a shutout ninth. Twins pitchers struck out 13 Houston batters collectively.
Houston left 11 on base and went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
The Twins and Astros meet for the finale of their three-game series at 1:10 p.m. CT on Sunday.
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