Trevor Larnach (2 HRs) backs Pablo Lopez as Twins blank Cards

Trevor Larnach went 3-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs, and the Minnesota Twins cruised to a 6-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday evening in Minneapolis.

Matt Wallner added a solo home run for Minnesota, which evened the series at one win apiece entering Sunday's rubber match. Max Kepler also drove in a run.

Victor Scott II went 1-for-2 with a double for St. Louis. Paul Goldschmidt and Lars Nootbaar also doubled for the Cardinals, whose three-game winning streak ended.

Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez (12-8) scattered four hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out nine to earn his fourth victory in his past six starts.

Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray (11-9) allowed five runs on seven hits in six innings against his former team. He walked two and fanned seven.

Twins relievers Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran pitched one scoreless inning apiece to preserve the victory. Jax and Duran combined to allow one hit and one walk and struck out four.

The Twins seized the lead with four runs in the bottom of the third.

Larnach started the big inning with a three-run shot with one out. After Austin Martin doubled and Willi Castro drew a walk, Larnach lofted a 384-foot shot over the wall in right field.

Three batters later, Kepler made it 4-0 in favor of the Twins. Royce Lewis singled to right, advanced to third on a single by Wallner and sprinted home on Kepler's fielder's choice groundout to second.

Larnach hit a solo homer to put Minnesota on top 5-0 in the fifth. He belted a 419-foot shot to right-center field for his second homer of the game and his 14th of the season.

The blast gave Larnach the first multi-homer game of his career. He has 34 homers in 274 games since the Twins drafted him in the first round out of Oregon State in 2018.

Wallner made it 6-0 in the eighth with a solo shot, his ninth homer of the season.

--Field Level Media