Hunter Goodman hit a career-best three home runs and tallied five RBIs, leading the Colorado Rockies to an 8-5 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday in Minneapolis.
Kyle Karros added a two-run homer for Colorado, which evened the three-game series at one win apiece heading to the decisive contest on Sunday. Jake McCarthy finished 2-for-5 with a triple and two runs for the Rockies, who have alternated wins and losses for seven games.
Trevor Larnach went 3-for-5 with a three-run double to lead Minnesota, which took its fourth defeat in five games.
Rockies right-hander Michael Lorenzen (3-9) broke a 10-start winless drought and picked up his first victory since April 24. He limited the Twins to two runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. Lorenzen struck out one and didn’t issue a walk.
Jimmy Herget got the final two outs for his third save.
Twins right-hander Mike Paredes (0-1) allowed three runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He fanned two and didn’t walk a batter.
The Rockies grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Goodman hammered a 428-foot solo shot to left.
The Twins answered in the bottom of the first. Larnach led off the inning with an infield single, advanced to second when Byron Buxton was hit by a pitch and scored on Kody Clemens’ single to center.
Goodman struck again to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead in the third. He hit another 428-foot shot, this time to center.
Colorado plated another run in the fifth to pull ahead 3-1. McCarthy hit a one-out triple to right and scored moments later on a groundout by Mickey Moniak.
The Twins cut the deficit to 3-2 on a Josh Bell triple and a Victor Caratini sacrifice fly in the sixth.
The Rockies turned to Goodman once again to power their offense in the seventh. With runners on first and second and no outs, he ripped a 401-foot homer over the wall in left-center field to give Colorado a 6-2 advantage.
The blast was Goodman’s team-leading 25th homer of the season. He is well on pace to shatter his career high of 31 homers from 2025.
Karros belted a two-run shot in the eighth to make it 8-2.
The Twins scored three runs in the ninth as they tried to mount a comeback. Larnach hit a bases-clearing double off the base of the wall in center to trim the deficit to 8-5.
–Field Level Media
