Ivan Herrera hit two home runs, with the second sparking a five-run seventh inning for the St. Louis Cardinals, who posted a 9-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday in Minneapolis.
Herrera went 2-for-3 with a walk and drove in three on his eighth and ninth homers. Jordan Walker also homered in the seventh, a 454-foot homer that hit off the third-deck facade in left field, and Blaze Jordan capped the inning with his first Major League long ball, a three-run shot.
In just his second game in the bigs, Jordan had his second 2-for-4 game and added a triple. Pedro Pages went 3-for-4 with two doubles.
Justin Lawrence (0-3) struck out the first two Cardinals he faced in the seventh, but St. Louis rocked him with four straight hits. Solo homers from Herrera and Walker, his 18th, started the rally. Jordan greeted Travis Adams with a three-run shot.
Royce Lewis (2-for-4) hit his third home run in his last four games for the Twins. Byron Buxton (2-for-4) hit his 22nd home run, and Luke Keaschall added a two-run shot for Minnesota’s scoring.
Matt Svanson (2-1) was perfect in 1 2/3 innings of relief for the Cardinals.
Herrera put the Cardinals up just six pitches into the game as he hit a two-run homer off Connor Prielipp. St. Louis got another two off the Twins starter in the second, thanks to Jordan’s triple, Pages’ first double and a Masyn Winn sacrifice fly.
Prielipp settled down from there to last six innings. He allowed seven hits and two walks while striking out two before giving way to Lawrence, who was tagged with his first loss with the Twins after they acquired him from Pittsburgh on June 2.
Minnesota got its three homers in the fourth and fifth innings off Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore to tie the game. Liberatore gave up five hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings and struck out four.
Kody Clemens’ RBI single in the eighth cut the Cardinals’ lead to four. St. Louis closer Riley O’Brien, pitching in a non-save situation, walked the first three batters he faced in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate three straight times. But only Josh Bell could bring in a run on a fielder’s choice.
