Trevor Larnach went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and the Minnesota Twins held on for a 7-4 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday night in Minneapolis.
Byron Buxton added two RBIs and two stolen bases for Minnesota, which won the opener of a seven-game homestand after a 2-4 road trip. Royce Lewis finished 2-for-3 with a solo homer.
Fernando Tatis Jr. went 2-for-5 with two RBIs to lead San Diego. Gavin Sheets was 3-for-3 with a double, a walk and two runs, and Jose Iglesias finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews (4-4) snapped a three-start winless streak. He allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits in six-plus innings, walking none and fanning three.
Kody Funderburk pitched around two walks in the ninth inning for his first save of the season.
San Diego left-hander Nestor Cortes (2-3) gave up three runs on five hits in three-plus innings. He walked two and struck out two.
The Padres, who took their fourth loss in five games, opened the scoring in the top of the third. Luis Arraez hit a sacrifice fly to left against his former team to drive in Jake Cronenworth.
The Twins pulled even in the bottom of the third when Kody Clemens scored on Buxton’s groundout.
Iglesias gave the Padres a 2-1 lead with an RBI single in the fourth.
The back-and-forth battle continued as the Twins put up a four-run bottom of the fourth to seize a 5-2 advantage. Clemens had an RBI fielder’s-choice groundout, with a second run scoring on the play due to an error by second baseman Cronenworth.
Moments later, Larnach hit a two-run single to center.
Lewis delivered in the fifth when he belted a hanging breaking ball 405 feet over the wall in left-center field for his ninth homer. Three batters later, Buxton hit an RBI single to left to increase the Twins’ lead to 7-2.
San Diego pulled within 7-4 on Tatis Jr.’s two-run single to center in the seventh.
The Padres had runners on first and second with one out in the ninth as they tried to mount a comeback. The rally fizzled as Elias Diaz struck out swinging and Tatis flied to right.
