Early fireworks quickly put out as Twins drop home opener to Astros

The Minnesota Twins provided some early fireworks for the announced crowd of 36,783 attending Thursday afternoon's home opener at Target Field in Minneapolis, but any spark they had quickly died out in a 5-2 loss to the Houston Astros.

The home opener started with Joe Ryan striking out the side in the first inning and the Twins (2-5) taking an early two-run lead. Matt Wallner led off with a triple and quickly came around to score on Carlos Correa's groundout the next at-bat. Byron Buxton, who went 2 for 4, reached on an infield single and came home the next at-bat when Trevor Larnach singled.

It was a quick start with three hits and two runs, but the Twins had just two hits the rest of the way as they were otherwise shut down by Hunter Brown and the Astros bullpen. Overall, the Twins struck out 11 times and didn't draw a single walk. They left four on base and went 1 for 4 with runners in scoring position.

"We have to find a way to get some baserunners out there. That's the name of the game," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "When you're down a couple runs, you got to win those at-bats when you get those chances to win those at-bats, and we didn't do it."

The Astros (3-4), meanwhile, quickly found their way out of the two-run hole. Christian Walker and Jeremy Pena hit back-to-back home runs — both no-doubters — off Ryan in the second inning to knot the game. Houston went ahead for good on Brendan Rodgers' two-run single in the fourth frame that came after Ryan's balk advanced runners to second and third.

Ryan thought Rodgers was calling a timeout when he balked.

"He kind of threw up his hands, so I kind of took that as a: 'Is this a timeout?' or just like step off," Ryan said. "I think my front foot left it before my right foot by a hair. They're looking at that pretty closely, and so that's a balk."

Ryan ultimately gave up five hits and four runs while fanning six across his five innings of work in the loss.

Brown shut down the Twins after the first inning, allowing just the two runs off five hits while fanning eight in six innings.

Fifteen Twins batters went down in order from the end of the third inning until the eighth when Wallner reached and took second base on an error.

When Brown was cruising through six innings, the Astros added an insurance run in the sixth frame. It appeared Louie Varland was going to send Houston down in order in the inning, but Harrison Bader lost a fly ball from Victor Caratini that resulted in a double. Rodgers followed up with another double the next at-bat to bring Caratini home for a 5-2 Astros lead.

Rodgers went 3 for 4 with three RBIs.

Jorge Alcala pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Darren McCaughan fanned four in scoreless eighth and ninth innings.

The Twins and Astros meet for the second of their three-game series at 1:10 p.m. CT on Saturday.

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