Byron Buxton singled, doubled, tripled and scored three runs to help the Minnesota Twins to a 6-3 win against the visiting Colorado Rockies in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday.
Max Kepler had two hits and two RBIs and Luis Arraez also had two hits and a run scored for the Twins, who have won three of four overall.
Twins starter Joe Ryan (6-3) allowed three runs and eight hits in five innings. He struck out one and walked one.
Jhoan Duran pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
Connor Joe, C.J. Cron, Brian Serven and Garrett Hampson had two hits each for the Rockies, who have lost five of six.
Rockies starter Ryan Feltner (1-3) allowed five runs and eight hits in four innings. He struck out two and walked one.
The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Joe doubled and scored on a two-out double by Cron.
Feltner gave up a one-out walk in the first, followed by four straight singles, the last three driving in runs to push the Twins ahead 3-1.
Buxton, who has been battling knee soreness for several weeks, tripled for the second consecutive game to score Arraez from first and make it 4-1 in the second inning. Buxton scored on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Correa for a 5-1 lead.
Charlie Blackmon homered for Colorado in the third to make it 5-2
Joe singled, stole second and scored on a double by Yonathan Daza in the fourth to trim the lead to 5-3.
The Rockies missed some chances to put more runs on the scoreboard.
They put runners on first and third with no outs in the second, but couldn’t push across a run.
Caleb Thielbar relieved Ryan in the sixth and Colorado loaded the bases with no outs, but Daza lined out to Thielbar and Blackmon grounded into a force play at home.
Emilio Pagan then relieved Thielbar and struck out Cron to keep it a two-run deficit.
Buxton singled with one out in the seventh and came home on a two-out double by Kepler to make it 6-3.
–Field Level Media