Kyle Farmer drove in the winning run with a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Minnesota Twins rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Friday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Farmer grounded a 1-1 fastball by Houston reliever Ryne Stanek (1-1) up the middle against a drawn-in infield to drive in Trevor Larnach for his second career walk-off hit and first since 2017.
The Twins, who snapped a two-game losing streak, were trailing 2-1 entering the bottom of the 10th with Byron Buxton at second as the designated runner. After Buxton advanced to third on Stanek’s wild pitch, Larnach walked and Jose Miranda then lined a single to right to drive in Buxton with tying run.
Larnach and Miranda both advanced on a wild pitch to Donovan Solano, who was then intentionally walked to load the bases and set the stage for Farmer’s game-winning hit.
Miranda finished 3-for-5 with an RBI, Solano and Buxton each had two hits and scored a run, and Michael Taylor had a double among two hits for the Twins. Jorge Lopez (1-0) picked up the win.
Mauricio Dubon went 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and run scored, and Kyle Tucker also had a double for Houston, which had a six-game win streak against Minnesota snapped.
Houston took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Dubon led off with a double to right, was sacrificed to third by Martin Maldonado and scored one out later on Alex Bregman’s single.
Minnesota, which left the bases loaded in the fourth and wasted Taylor’s leadoff double in the fifth, tied it, 1-1, in the sixth. Solano singled with one out, went to second on Farmer’s single, advanced to third on a fielder’s choice by Nick Gordon and then scored on a wild pitch by Astros reliever Bryan Abreu.
David Hensley began the 10th as the designated runner at second and advanced to third on a groundout to second by Chas McCormick. With the infield in, Dubon then bounced a grounder into the hole and under the glove of shortstop Carlos Correa to drive in Hensley and give Houston a 2-1 lead.
Twins starter Sonny Gray struck out a career-high 13 batters before departing after seven innings. Gray allowed one run on four hits, walked one and threw 98 pitches, 61 for strikes. The 13 strikeouts were the most by a Twins pitcher since Francisco Liriano struck out 15 on July 13, 2012.
Gray, who struck out the side in both the fourth and fifth innings and struck out five in a row during one stretch, became the fifth pitcher since 2017 to strike out at least 12 Astros in a game, joining Shohei Ohtani (twice), Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole and Lance Lynn.
–Field Level Media
