Royce Lewis and Victor Caratini hit back-to-back homers, Zebby Matthews pitched seven stingy innings and the Minnesota Twins held off a late rally by the Houston Astros for a 5-4 victory Monday night.
Josh Bell launched a two-run shot for the Twins, who led 5-1 before Travis Adams gave up a two-run homer to Taylor Trammell with two outs in the ninth.
Yoendrys Gómez entered and immediately served up Cam Smith's second home run of the game before retiring Joey Loperfido on a grounder for his ninth save.
Houston had won five of six.
Matthews (4-5) limited the Astros to one run and four hits while striking out seven and walking one.
"I thought he was really good, you know, he was in control," said Twins Manager Derek Shelton about Matthews performance. "I thought the cutters probably about as good as we've seen it. The execution of it to both sides of the plate, looked like he got tired a little bit there in the 7th. There was some hard contact even though the pitch count was pretty reasonable, but I thought he did a really good job. I mean, to be able to navigate through that lineup, he did a nice job."
Peter Lambert (6-5) held Minnesota hitless until Lewis and Caratini went deep in the fourth. Bell's drive made it 4-1 in the sixth, and Kody Clemens added an RBI groundout in the seventh.
Lambert allowed four runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings. He had won four straight decisions.
Smith pulled a hanging slider onto the train tracks above left field for a solo homer in the fifth. Astros reliever Miguel Ullola made his major league debut, striking out four in two scoreless innings. Houston returned home from a 5-2 trip and entered Monday an AL-best 15-10 in June.
There's some bad news for Minnesota as Byron Buxton sat out of Monday's game with a hip injury. Shelton seemed to indicate it wasn't serious. Buxton is having one of his best seasons so far, and is a finalist for the All-Star Game.
"Yes, so it's impingement in the right hip, that's what the MRI showed," Shelton said Monday. "So, we're just going to see how he is day-to-day."
Minnesota also placed left-handed reliever Anthony Banda on the 15-day injured list with a left lat strain. The Twins recalled right-hander Cody Laweryson from Triple-A St. Paul.
Up next
Twins RHP Joe Ryan (5-4, 3.18 ERA) faces Astros RHP Mike Burrows (3-8, 5.48) in the middle game of the series Tuesday night. Pregame 6:30 p.m. on 830 WCCO and the Audacy app (in-market only), first pitch 7:10 p.m.
