Houston right-hander Gerrit Cole got back on track with seven one-hit innings Tuesday night in the Astros’ 11-0 romp over the Minnesota Twins.
Now the Astros hope Collin McHugh can do the same when they face the Twins in the third game of their four-game series on Wednesday night at Target Field in Minneapolis.
McHugh (3-2, 4.78 ERA), who is 3-1 with a 2.86 ERA in seven career appearances against Minnesota, including five starts, struggled in his past two starts this season. Over nine innings, he allowed a total 12 earned runs, including five home runs.
The trouble started in an 11-10 loss at Texas on April 21 when he allowed a career-worst 10 runs (nine earned) on eight hits over 3 1/3 innings. He followed that up with a no decision in a 6-3 home loss to Cleveland on Friday, allowing solo home runs to Francisco Lindor, Carlos Gonzalez and Leonys Martin and four hits over a 5 2/3-inning stint.
“The results speak for themselves,” McHugh told MLB.com after the loss to the Indians. “You give up homers, (and) it’s hard to win games.”
Still, Houston manager A.J. Hinch said he was happy with McHugh’s performance against Cleveland.
“Good outing, but he’s not going to leave the field feeling good about it because of those homers,” Hinch said. “Certainly, (it) was a bounce back from (the Texas loss).”
The Astros’ bats also bounced back on Tuesday after they were held to just five singles in a 1-0 loss to Jake Odorizzi and the Twins in Monday night’s series opener. Houston pounded out 15 hits, including home runs by George Springer, Alex Bregman and Jake Marisnick, in Tuesday night’s win, which was played under at-times wet and chilly (low 40s) conditions.
“It’s fun,” Springer said of the offensive output. “I think every guy kind of feeds off each other. It’s kind of like the old-school saying that hitting is contagious. It showed tonight.”
Minnesota will turn to left-hander Martin Perez (3-0, 4.44 ERA) in Wednesday night’s contest. Perez, who will be trying to win his third consecutive start, is 6-4 with a 3.00 ERA in 11 career starts against the Astros.
“This is a good lineup we’re facing,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You just have to be really good when you face this team. They’re going to wear you down and get you to a point where they’re going to put some runs on the board if you’re not on top of your game and commanding your pitches and doing what you want to do.”
Despite ending April with a clunker, the Twins still had reason to smile. They begin May in first place in the American League Central with a 17-10 record, and the 17 wins are the second most in franchise history through the end of April. The Twins also have slammed a team-record 50 home runs heading into May.
“It was a good month for us,” Baldelli said. “The guys collectively swung the bats very well. (Our) quality at-bats were very good. It’s just maintaining, and it’s difficult to do. … As long as we have these types of at-bats, we’re going to be very happy.”