The Twins tied the game in the sixth inning on a wild pitch, then finally came through with the bats late to get a 3-2 walk-off win over the Houston Astros during Friday’s home opener at Target Field.
Despite rapping 11 hits, the runs were hard to come by, largely because the team went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base.
The wild pitch made it a 1-1 game, then the Twins surrendered a run in the top of the 10th to make it 2-1 Houston. But the Twins scored two runs in the home half of the inning, including infielder Kyle Farmer’s walk-off single up the middle to win the game.
The pitching win went to reliever Jorge Lopez, although the real performance on the mound came from starter Sonny Gray, who allowed only a run over seven innings with 13 strikeouts, a new career high.
Several Twins had multiple hits in the game, with third baseman Jose Miranda leading the way with three hits, followed by Byron Buxton, Donovan “Donnie Barrels” Solano, Farmer and Michael Taylor with two hits apiece. Taylor had the only extra-base hit in the game for the Twins.
Joe Ryan gets the ball Saturday.
Extra innings …
-It was a long day at the office for Carlos Correa, who struck out three times in five plate appearances.
-Houston reliever and ex-Twin Ryan Pressly remains a dominant presence in the bullpen. He struck out the side in the ninth inning on 13 pitches. Pressly spent five-plus seasons with the Twins before he was traded to the Astros in 2018. In return, the Twins picked up reliever Jorge Alcala.
-On April 6, 1982, more than 52,000 fans were on hand to see the Twins play their first game in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. They would lose that game and ultimately lose more than 100 games en route to a 60-102 record. Despite the seat-busting attendance for Game 1 in the dome, the Twins would finish dead last out of 14 American League teams in attendance at 921,186, according to Baseball-Reference.com.