Trey Mancini hits homer for second straight game, Astros win 6-3 against Twins

The Houston Astros secured a 6-3 victory after Trey Mancini hit a home run for a second straight game, a three-run shot on Thursday night. Their victory led the opponent, the Minnesota Twins, to slump.

Since being traded from the Baltimore Orioles, Mancini has recorded six home runs and 16 RBIs in 18 games. Mancini hit a two-run home run the day before as well.

“That’s why he’s batting where he’s batting because I was hoping he’d have some runners on in front of him," Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “That’s why I hit (Christian) Vazquez ahead of him because he gets on base and has been getting base hits. But that was huge."

More into the game

The Astros (81-45) dominantly lead the American League West division after this victory against the Twins, who unfortunately have lost a season-high six games and finished 0-6. The two teams had a tied score at 1-1 when Mancini connected off Chris Archer on his shot in left field.

“We've got to go out there and play that complete baseball that we’ve been talking about," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The glimpses of things, you’d rather see that than some of the things that we’ve seen lately. But we need to put it together."

Archer mentioned that he was disappointed with his performance. “If I could have executed one or two pitches it would have been a lot different,” Archer said. “So, yeah, I’m disappointed, for sure."

Meanwhile, Astros right-hander Luis Garcia had his third straight win after he made five hits and three-run, also five strikeouts in five innings.

“That was the best bullpen night we’ve had in a while," Baker said. “It was relatively clean, guys had clean innings. I don’t think we had many walks. Vazquez directed them through the game very good; that was an outstanding job by him.”

On the other hand, Carlos Correa went 0 for 4 to end the series 1 to 11, Thursday night. It became his forgettable series since leaving the Astros after seven seasons, to sign with the Twins. His teammate Jorge Polanco managed to give his team a 1-0 lead after his home run to the right field.

Jose Altuve made a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning while Yuli Gurriel had an infield single. Right before Mancini hit his home run, Vazques and third baseman Alex Bregman hit consecutive singles.

Injury report

Following the OF Byron Buxton’s injury, the Twins signed OF Billy Hamilton to a minor league contract on Thursday. Their upcoming schedule would be the opener of a series against San Francisco which will be started by Joe Ryan (9-6, 3.86 ERA) on Friday night against Alex Wood (8-10, 4.54).

Meanwhile, some of the Astros' players will not be able to join the game for some time. Closer Ryan Pressly entered the injured list after Pressly injured his neck on Thursday, OF Chas McCormick was also injured after dislocating his right pinky on Wednesday night, and OF Kyle Tucker felt some soreness on his left foot.

Astros will start their game series against the Orioles on Friday night. Lance McCullers Jr. (1-1, 2.45) is expected to oppose Baltimore’s Kyle Bradish (1-5, 6.25).