Josh Bell, Kody Clemens and Luke Keaschall belted home runs while Taj Bradley matched his career high for strikeouts as the visiting Minnesota Twins claimed the rubber match of their three-game series against the Houston Astros with an 8-3 victory on Wednesday.
Bell extended his career-high 16-game road hitting streak with a two-run blast in the top of the first inning before Clemens socked a three-run homer an inning later.
The Twins wasted little time chasing Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai (5-4) from the mound.
Imai, who won his third consecutive decision while posting his third scoreless outing in his last start at Detroit, was ragged from the onset. He surrendered a leadoff double to Trevor Larnach and, three batters later, grooved a 2-1 slider that Bell tattooed to straightaway center field.
Bell notched his 11th homer of the season with a seismic 452-foot blast that cleared the batter’s eye. Imai followed by loading the bases with a pair of walks around a Victor Caratini single, but escaped the first inning without any additional damage. He wasn’t as fortunate in the second.
Imai walked three more batters in the second, including Keaschall and Brooks Lee, before Clemens came to the plate with one out. Clemens followed with his 14th home run, a 399-foot drive into the home bullpen in right-center that lifted the Twins to a 5-1 lead.
Imai, who needed 34 pitches to complete the first, departed after walking Bell. He allowed five runs on four hits and five walks over 1? innings, marking his third start of fewer than two innings.
Bradley (7-3) surrendered his lone run in the bottom of the first when Jose Altuve worked a leadoff walk and scored on Isaac Paredes’ double-play grounder. Bradley closed the first with a strikeout of Christian Walker, the first of 10 consecutive batters he retired via the strikeout.
Nick Allen snapped that run with a groundout to open the fifth, but Bradley closed his outing by recording a called third strike on Paredes. He worked five innings and allowed four hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts.
Larnach delivered a two-run single in the top of the fifth. Keaschall answered the Astros’ two-run sixth with a solo homer, his third, in the eighth.
