Carlos Correa went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs as the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday in Minneapolis.
Byron Buxton finished 3-for-3 with two RBIs for Minnesota, which won the opener of a four-game series. Austin Martin went 2-for-4 with an RBI as the Twins posted their fourth victory in five games.
Tyler Soderstrom hit a two-run homer to lead Oakland. That marked the only extra-base hit of the game for the Athletics, who finished with four hits while losing their sixth game in a row.
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (5-5) allowed two runs on three hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Athletics right-hander Luis Medina (0-2) gave up four runs on eight hits in five innings. He fanned three and walked one.
Twins relievers Griffin Jax and Jorge Alcala pitched one scoreless inning apiece to preserve the victory for Ryan.
The Athletics jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Miguel Andujar drew a leadoff walk, and Soderstrom followed with a two-run shot that traveled 431 feet to center.
It was Soderstrom’s fourth homer of the season and his third in the past four games.
The Twins pulled even at 2-2 in the bottom of the second. Buxton hit a two-run single to center field to score Max Kepler and Correa, both of whom had singled.
In the third, Correa ripped a go-ahead, RBI single to right field.
Minnesota made it 4-2 in the fourth on Martin’s RBI fielder’s-choice groundout.
Correa struck again in the seventh, belting a two-run homer. He pulled a 394-foot shot to left for his sixth long ball of the year.
The big performance gave Correa two home runs and 16 RBIs in his past 13 games. He is hitting .404 (21-for-52) during that span.
Martin joined the starting lineup and drove in a run on the same day that he was promoted from Triple-A St. Paul. He took the spot of Alex Kirilloff, who was demoted to Triple-A after hitting .201 with five homers and 20 RBIs in 57 games.
–Field Level Media
