Astros keep falling short. Fall 9-6 against Twins

Day after day, it’s turning into a rough beginning of the 2023 season for the Astros. On Saturday afternoon, they lost the second game of the series against the Twins by a 9-6 score. It was their five lost game out of their last six contests, a balance that has them sitting in fourth place of the AL West with a 3-6 record.

This time, the Astros’ biggest enemy was the long ball. Even though the Twins only hit two out of the park, both were with two men on base. And one of them came in the second inning from Kyle Farmer to make it 3-0. Immediately, a Trevor Larnach single added one more (4-0).

In the third, the Astros had their biggest inning of the game. With bases loaded, Yordan Álvarez crushed a game-tying grand slam for his third home run of the campaign. It was all tied at four after three innings.

The Astros pitching, whose starter was Luis García, held the Twins until the sixth inning when former Astro Christian Vázquez singled home a run to make it 5-4. García hasn’t been sharp at all this season – after two outings, he’s got a 7.00 ERA due to 13 hits and seven earned runs, plus five walks and eight strikeouts over nine innings.

In the bottom eighth, the second three-run home run hurt the Astros. After another RBI single by Vázquez, Byron Buxton homered to extend the Twins’ lead 9-2 against Astros rookie Ronel Blanco.

The Astros tried to come back with two more runs in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough. Both runs got in thanks to a Jeremy Peña two-run shot for his second four-bagger of the young season.

José Abreu has had a great start to his Astros career, getting at least a hit in all of his nine games, which is the longest active streak in the Majors.

The Astros will try to avoid being swept on Sunday in the final contest of the three-game series. Hunter Brown has the assignment for Houston while Tyler Mahle is the announced starter by Minnesota.

VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.