Minnesota beat Houston 8-3 on July 1.
The Twins did the damage early. Josh Bell hit a two-run homer in the first, and Kody Clemens followed in the second with a three-run homer to put Minnesota ahead 5-1.
Houston got one back in the first when Jose Altuve scored on an Isaac Paredes double play, but the Astros were already chasing the game.
Minnesota added two more in the fifth when Trevor Larnach singled home Victor Caratini and Luke Keaschall. Houston cut it to 7-3 in the sixth on RBI singles from Joey Loperfido and Nick Allen.
Keaschall added a solo homer in the eighth to close out the scoring.
Taj Bradley earned the win after allowing one run over five innings with 11 strikeouts. Tatsuya Imai took the loss after allowing five runs over 1.1 innings.
What It Means
The Twins improve to 42-46. The Astros fall to 43-46.
BaseChaser lists the Twins at 27.2% to make the playoffs and the Astros at 34.2%.
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