ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jason Castro singled home two runs in the ninth inning as part of a three-run rally that helped Minnesota snap a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win in Anaheim.
The Angels took a 2-1 lead into the ninth on Kole Calhoun’s two solo home runs, including the go-ahead blast in the eighth. Los Angeles first baseman Jefry Marte had a rough night, bouncing into
a triple play in the fourth inning and misjudging a simple popup by Jorge Polanco with one out in the ninth that led to the Twins’ winning rally.
The Angels’ Albert Pujols, who is one home run shy of 600 in his career, hit a single in four at-bats.
While the Twins have had their issues at Target Field lately, they’ve been able to shine on the road. Thursday night’s win was not only their fourth straight road win they’ve also managed to win all but one of their last 11. Compare that to their most recent home stand where they managed just one win against Tampa Bay and Houston and in fact were bludgeoned in three straight losses to the Astros while coughing up 40 runs in the series.
Tonight the Twins will go for yet another road victory when they line up against the Angels again for game two of their four game series. Kyle Gibson goes for Minnesota as he looks to improve upon his 1-4 record and his whopping 7.85 E-R-A. He will face J.C. Ramirez (5-3) with a 9:07 P-M first pitch.
Los Angeles is in the middle of a seven game home stand which started by taking two of three from Atlanta. While the Angels are a game under .500 at 28-29 they are still in second place in the A.L. West but now sit 11 1/2 games back of Houston. The Twins enter the game 27-23 and tied with Cleveland for first in the Central.