Josh Bell blasts 2 home runs to carry Twins past Astros

Josh Bell went 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs, and the Minnesota Twins held on for a 6-3 win over the Houston Astros on a rain-soaked Monday night in Minneapolis.

Luke Keaschall added two RBIs for Minnesota, which took the opener of a three-game series. The Twins have won six of their past nine games.

Christian Walker went 2-for-5 with an RBI for Houston. Jeremy Pena and Christian Vazquez added one RBI apiece.

The game included a rain delay that lasted nearly two hours.

Twins right-hander Eric Orze (2-1) pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Orze was one of six relievers to follow rookie left-hander Kendry Rojas, who fired four scoreless innings in his first big-league start.

Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai (1-2) allowed three runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked none and struck out five.

Twins southpaw Taylor Rogers got the final two outs for his first save of the season.

Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the second. Bell timed a changeup from Imai and crushed a 429-foot homer over the wall in center field.

Bell struck again in the fourth to put the Twins on top 3-0. Trevor Larnach led off with a single and advanced to second on a balk, and Bell followed three batters later with a two-run blast to left for his second homer of the game and his fifth of the season.

After the rain delay, the Twins scored three more runs in the sixth to make it 6-0. Bell started the big inning with an RBI single to right, and Keaschall followed in the next at-bat with a two-RBI single to center.

The Astros got on the scoreboard in the seventh. Vazquez hit an RBI single against his former team, Pena added a sacrifice fly to right and Walker hit an RBI single to slice Houston's deficit to 6-3.

Twins outfielder Byron Buxton missed his fifth game in a row because of hip soreness. Manager Derek Shelton said Buxton is "very close" to returning.

--Field Level Media