HOUSTON – The Astros do more than deliver double-digit beatdowns, the Twins found out on Sunday.
The Astros fell behind early but recovered largely because injured Byron Buxton was not in center field, then used their speed and savvy to finish off the Twins 5-3 to win the weekend series.
The Twins returned home feeling they acquitted themselves better than they did in May, when Houston scored 40 runs against them while sweeping three games at Target Field.
"Today was kind of a tossup," second baseman Brian Dozier said. "We make a couple plays, we could have come out of here winning two out of three games."
But this isn't the time for encouraging pats on the back or to pass out the orange slices for participation. The Twins still have the Yankees this week at Target Field and travel to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers next week. It's an important stretch of games that will test the Twins' legitimacy as contenders.
Where the Twins failed to make plays Sunday, the Astros succeeded.
Houston righthander Mike Fiers held the Twins to two runs on four hits over seven innings while striking out a season-high 11 batters. Fiers (6-4) struck out eight Twins over the first four innings before breaking out his curveball to help with the final three.
That enabled the Astros to take a 3-2 lead in the fourth and then run their way into two insurance runs in the seventh.