Royce Lewis blasted a two-run homer, Chris Paddack tossed 6 1/3 strong innings and the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 5-0 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday night in Minneapolis.
Carlos Correa and Christian Vazquez each doubled and drove in a run and Trevor Larnach added an RBI for Minnesota. The Twins finished with seven hits, four of which went for extra bases, as they earned their second straight win following a five-game skid.
Charlie Blackmon went 2-for-4 to lead the Rockies at the plate. Colorado lost for the eighth time in 10 games.
Paddack (4-3) scattered six hits, walked none and struck out six while throwing 61 of 93 pitches for strikes.
Relievers Steven Okert (two-thirds of an inning, Griffin Jax (one inning) and Diego Castillo (one inning) closed out the Twins’ third shutout win of the season.
Rockies right-hander Dakota Hudson (2-8) took a hard-luck loss after giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out one.
Minnesota opened the scoring in the third inning. Manuel Margot hit a one-out double to right field, advanced to third base on a throwing error by Rockies outfielder Hunter Goodman and scored on a sacrifice fly by Vazquez.
Correa made it 2-0 with an RBI double in the fourth. His two-out hit drove in Lewis.
In the eighth, the Twins tallied three more runs to increase their advantage to 5-0. Larnach hit a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Vazquez, who had doubled and moved up on a single by Willi Castro. Lewis then belted a two-run, 435-foot shot to left-center field.
The blast was Lewis’ fourth homer in seven games this season. He missed more than two months because of a right quadriceps strain.
The Rockies finished with 10 strikeouts while drawing only one walk. By comparison, Twins hitters drew two walks and struck out only twice.
–Field Level Media