Byron Buxton went 2-for-5 with a homer, a double and two RBIs, and the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Royce Lewis finished 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs for Minnesota, which won the rubber match of the three-game series. Luke Keaschall added an RBI and scored two runs.
Freddy Fermin doubled and drove in a run for San Diego. Bryce Johnson also had an RBI.
Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. left the game after appearing to tweak his hamstring in the bottom of the seventh inning. Tatis came up short while trying to chase down a shallow fly ball, and he stretched his leg and remained in the game after the play but did not return for the following inning.
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (13-7) tossed seven scoreless innings to earn the victory. He limited the Padres to five hits, walked one and struck out eight.
Padres left-hander Kyle Hart (3-3) gave up three runs on a hit, a walk and a hit-by-pitch in 1 1/3 innings. He replaced right-hander David Morgan, who pitched two scoreless innings as the team’s opener.
Buxton started the scoring with a two-run homer to left field in the third. It was his 29th home run of the season, which marked a single-season high for the 31-year-old.
The Twins added a run in the fourth to make it 3-0. James Outman hit an RBI single to center to score Keaschall from second base.
Minnesota’s hot hitting continued in the fifth. Keaschall hit an RBI single to center, Ryan Jeffers hit a sacrifice fly to right and Lewis added an RBI single to increase the Twins’ lead to 6-0.
Lewis tacked on another RBI single, this time on a bloop hit to right, to make it 7-0 in the seventh.
Fermin hit an RBI double in the ninth to avoid a shutout for the Padres. Johnson singled in the next at-bat to cut the deficit to 7-2.
