Ryan Kreidler belted a three-run homer and Joe Ryan struck out a season-high nine batters, fueling the Minnesota Twins to a 4-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Victor Caratini launched a solo homer in the second inning among his two hits. He also scored twice for the Twins, who improved to 7-4 in their last 11 games after winning the decisive contest of a three-game series.
Ryan (3-3) allowed one run on four hits in six innings to snap a six-start winless skid. He was 0-2 in that stretch since tossing seven strong innings in Minnesota’s 7-4 victory in Toronto on April 11.
Yoendrys Gomez relieved Ryan and struck out five batters, yielding just one hit over two scoreless innings. Andrew Morris retired the side in the ninth to secure his first career save.
Houston’s Christian Vazquez had an RBI single with two outs in the second inning.
Cam Smith had two of the five hits for the Astros, who have lost eight of their last 12 games.
With the game tied at 1-1, Caratini had a two-out single in the fourth inning and Tristan Gray worked a walk to set the stage for Kreidler. The 28-year-old deposited a 0-1 fastball from Mike Burrows (2-6) over the wall in left-center field for his third homer of the season.
Kreidler was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul last week. He had two homers with the Twins in his previous stint with the club in April.
Burrows permitted four runs on six hits with three walks in six innings to take his second straight loss. He yielded seven runs on eight hits — including two homers — in an 8-3 setback to Seattle on Thursday.
Vazquez opened the scoring by plating Zach Dezenzo with an RBI single to center field off Ryan in the second inning.
Caratini responded by depositing a 2-1 fastball from Burrows over the wall in right-center field. The homer was Caratini’s second of the season and first since April 13.
