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Top of the order leads Twins to win over Rockies

Betsy Helfand, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

It wasn’t quite as easy as A-B-C for the Twins — the talented top of the lineup got some help — but the efforts of Minnesota’s three stars went a long way on Sunday.

Luis Arraez, Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa helped spark the offensive effort in the Twins’ 6-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon at Target Field. The trio finished the day a combined 6 for 10 with five runs scored and two driven in. Buxton, who had three of those hits and scored three runs, finished the day just a home run shy of the cycle.

Serving as the team’s designated hitter, Buxton reached base in all four of his plate appearances. Buxton walked and scored as part of a three-run first inning. Four straight singles from Correa, Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff and Gio Urshela followed his walk as the Twins gave starter Joe Ryan an early cushion.

In the second inning, Buxton’s second triple in as many days — before Saturday, he hadn’t tripled since 2019 — brought home Arraez, who finished with a pair of hits. Buxton would later score on Correa’s sacrifice fly. He would score again on a Kepler double in the seventh inning.

The six runs came on a day where Ryan was not at his sharpest, but he battled through five innings. The Rockies had baserunners on in each inning of his start, but he managed to limit the damage, giving up a run each in the first, third and fourth.

Caleb Thielbar followed, loading the bases with no outs to begin his outing. For the second time this week, the Twins wriggled out of a bases-loaded, no outs situation, with Thielbar and Emilio Págan combining to do so. Tyler Duffey and Jhoan Duran each threw a scoreless inning to cap the win.

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