Díaz homers twice as Padres beat Twins 12-3
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Elías Díaz homered twice and the San Diego Padres beat the Minnesota Twins 12-3 on Saturday night.
Ramón Laureano also homered for San Diego, which scored 11 runs against Minnesota relievers.
Manny Machado had two hits to top 1,000 with the Padres. He had an RBI single in the Padres’ seven-run seventh inning that gave the Padres a 10-3 lead.
Byron Buxton homered and James Outman and Trevor Larnach each had two hits for the Twins.
Reliever Adrian Morejon (11-4) pitched a scoreless sixth inning to pick up the win for the Padres, who began the day two games behind the first-place Dodgers in the AL West and two games behind the Cubs for the top NL wild-card spot.
Twins starter Taj Bradley allowed just one run and one hit over five innings, and Buxton’s two-run homer off Nick Pivetta gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead after five.
But reliever Mick Abel (2-4) — one of the Twins’ key acquisitions in their flurry of deadline-day trades — quickly gave that lead back as the Padres used three hits, a walk and an error to score twice in the sixth to tie the score.
Abel then allowed four consecutive singles to start the seventh before he was pulled. The Padres went on to score seven runs in the inning, capped by Díaz’s second home run of the night.
Laureano hit a two-run homer in the eighth.
Key moment
With the Twins leading 3-1, Luis Arraez led off the sixth with a routine ground ball that shortstop Brooks Lee bobbled for an error. That opened the door for San Diego’s tying rally.
Key stat
One night after joining the 20 homers-20 steals club for the first time in his career, Buxton tied his career high with his 28th home run of the season.
Up next
Twins RHP Joe Ryan (12-7, 3.22 ERA) will start in Sunday’s series finale. The Padres have yet to name a starting pitcher.
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More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/MLB
By PATRICK DONNELLY
Associated Press
