Ryan Jeffers lined the first pitch of the 10th inning into the Crawford Boxes in left field and the Minnesota Twins won the opener of their three-game series with the Houston Astros 7-5 on Monday.
Jeffers’ third home run of the season came against Astros reliever Bryan Abreu (2-1) and plated Max Kepler, who began the frame on second base. The Twins scored three runs off the Houston bullpen over the final two innings. Jhoan Duran (1-1) worked two scoreless innings for the Twins.
After coughing up a 4-0 lead, the Twins saddled Astros closer Ryan Pressly with his first blown save with a ninth-inning rally. Royce Lewis, who earlier had a three-run homer, hit an RBI single to center scored Kyle Farmer with two outs and evened the score at 5-5.
Astros second baseman Jose Altuve socked his second home run of the season — and second in as many days — with two outs and two strikes in the seventh, delivering a grand slam off Twins reliever Brock Stewart that erased a three-run deficit. He turned on a 99-mph fastball and drove it 381 feet into the left-field seats for his seventh career grand slam and a 5-4 lead.
Twins right-hander Sonny Gray dominated through six frames and had just 68 pitches on his ledger entering the bottom of the seventh. He allowed one unearned run in the fourth when Yordan Alvarez reached on a two-base fielding error by Joey Gallo and subsequently scored on a double-play groundout from Kyle Tucker.
But Tucker opened the seventh with a double and Jose Abreu walked. Gray ceded the mound to Stewart, who surrendered a bloop single to Mauricio Dubon two batters before Altuve flipped the scoreboard.
Gray allowed just four hits and three runs (two earned) in his six-plus innings, with three strikeouts and three walks.
Minnesota grabbed a 3-0 lead in the third with a two-out uprising off Astros starter J.P. France. Carlos Correa (walk) and Alex Kirilloff (single) reached prior to Lewis, who lined a three-run homer the opposite way off the right-field foul pole for his first home run in his season debut.
Lewis, who returned from a rehab assignment, suffered a right ACL tear on May 29, 2022, and missed the remainder of last season.
The Twins extended their lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Michael A. Taylor produced a single to right that scored Willi Castro from second base.
–Field Level Media
