Field Level Media
Jun 25, 2019
Eddie Rosario collected four hits and two RBIs Tuesday night, and Kyle Gibson tossed seven mostly effective innings as the Minnesota Twins beat the Tampa Bay Rays 9-4 in the opener of a three-game series at Minneapolis.
The Twins have won three of four. The Rays fell to 2-6 on a 10-game road trip that is scheduled to conclude Thursday afternoon.
Rosario doubled leading off the second against Rays starter Blake Snell (4-7) and scored the Twins' first run on a two-out single by Willians Astudillo.
An inning later, Rosario extended Minnesota's lead to 3-0 with a two-out RBI single. He capped a three-run fourth with another RBI single before singling in the sixth.
It was the third four-hit game of the season for Rosario, who fell short of his second career five-hit game when he lined out for the final out of the eighth.
Jonathan Schoop led off the third with a homer, and C.J. Cron closed out the Twins' first three-run inning with an RBI single. Mitch Garver laced a two-run single in the fourth, and Jorge Polanco's sacrifice fly in the fifth gave Minnesota an 8-0 lead.
The Rays had just one hit through five innings against Gibson before they began stirring in the sixth, with Willy Adames belting a leadoff homer. Tampa Bay closed within 8-4 in the seventh, when rookie Mike Brosseau laced a two-run double for his first big league RBIs before scoring on Brandon Lowe's triple.
Garver, who added a homer in the eighth, had three hits, as did Astudillo.
Gibson (8-4) allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out seven.
Adames was the lone Rays' player with two hits.
The struggles for Snell, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, continued as he allowed seven runs on a career-worst 11 hits and one walk while striking out four over 3 1/3 innings. Snell is 0-2 with a 20.57 ERA over his past three starts.
--Field Level Media