Chris Paddack took a perfect game into the sixth inning, Byron Buxton had a hand in two of Minnesota’s three runs and the Twins won a sixth straight game Friday night, beating the visiting San Francisco Giants 3-1 in the opener of a three-game interleague series.
Paddack (1-3), who hadn’t pitched more than five innings in any of his previous seven starts this season, retired the first 17 Giants he faced before Christian Koss, the No. 9 hitter, singled to center field with two outs in the sixth.
Paddack lost his shutout bid when Matt Chapman hit a solo shot in the seventh. The right-hander left the game one out into the eighth after he allowed a third hit — a single by Heliot Ramos — leading off the inning.
He finished with six strikeouts and no walks in his longest outing since going eight full innings in a no-decision at Cleveland last May.
Facing the potential tying run at the plate, Louis Varland retired both batters he faced in the eighth to preserve a 3-1 lead. Danny Coulombe recorded his second save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth.
The Twins wasted no time giving Paddack a lead. Buxton smacked Jordan Hicks’ first pitch of the game for a triple. Two pitches later, Minnesota went up 1-0 on an RBI single by Trevor Larnach.
A two-out RBI single by Carlos Correa made it 2-0 in the fourth, scoring Ty France from second base. Buxton helped produce Minnesota’s third run when his single in the fifth was misplayed by Ramos in left field, allowing Harrison Bader to score.
Hicks (1-4) completed six innings, during which he allowed all three Minnesota runs and seven hits. Like Paddack, he struck out six without issuing a walk.
Buxton and Correa had two hits apiece for the Twins, whose lone extra-base hit was Buxton’s game-opening triple.
Chapman’s homer was his eighth of the season for the Giants, who had won five of their previous six games, including their final two in Chicago against the Cubs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
