MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Christian Walker and Jeremy Peña homered and Brendan Rodgers had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Houston Astros to a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday.
Hunter Brown (2-0) gave up two runs in the first and shut down the Twins the rest of the way, allowing five hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in six innings. The 26-year-old righty retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced.
Bryan King, Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader pitched scoreless innings in relief. Hader earned his third save.
Twins starter Joe Ryan (0-2) allowed five runs on five hits and struck out six over five innings.
Minnesota took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of its home opener. Matt Wallner led off with drive to the warning track that got stuck under the padding on the wall in right-center. He reached third base on the play, then scored on Carlos Correa’s groundout. Byron Buxton followed with an infield single. He stole second and scored on Trevor Larnach’s line-drive single to left-center.
The Astros got those runs back when Walker and Peña started the second with back-to-back homers.
Rodgers put the Astros on top for good with a two-run single in the fourth and drove in Victor Caratini with a double in the sixth to make it 5-2.
Key moment
With runners on first and second and one out in the fourth, a Ryan balk moved both runners into scoring position. The Twins brought their infield in, and Rodgers chopped a single just past a diving Correa at shortstop, scoring both on a ball that could have been an inning-ending double play.
Key stat
Jose Altuve struck out five times, the first five-strikeout game in his 15-year MLB career.
Up next
RHP Bailey Ober (0-1, 27.00) of the Twins will face Houston RHP Spencer Arrighetti (1-0, 1.50) on Saturday.
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