Twins take early lead, then hold off Rays to secure split

Minnesota's Edouard Julien bashed a three-run home run as the Twins earned a split of their four-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-3 victory Thursday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Julien went deep in the second and Matt Wallner followed with one in the third for a 4-0 lead that lifted the Twins (76-64) to a split against Tampa Bay (69-71).

Ryan Jeffers had a double in a 2-for-4 day for Minnesota, which is 22-17 in one-run games and 37-34 on the road.

Sitting at 2-2 on their seven-game road trip, the Twins will head to Kansas City to play three against the American League Central rival Royals.

Twins starter Pablo Lopez (14-8) yielded three runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings. He fanned nine with a walk.

The red-hot right-hander recorded his sixth win in his past eight starts, though his career-high scoreless streak ended at 23 1/3 innings.

Over seven innings, Tampa Bay's Taj Bradley (6-10) allowed four runs on six hits with a walk. He struck out 10, including Royce Lewis on an automatic third strike in the first inning.

In his major league debut, reliever Mason Montgomery fired a scoreless eighth with a strikeout and a walk.

Jonny DeLuca went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs, while Junior Caminero drove in two runs. Yandy Diaz had two hits with an RBI double and Christopher Morel tripled.

Six of the seven games in the clubs' season series were decided by one run.

Following singles by Jose Miranda and Carlos Santana to open the second inning, Julien crushed his eighth homer 392 feet to right field for a quick 3-0 lead.

Minnesota flexed its muscle again in the third when Wallner jumped on a 2-0 pitch and lofted it into the first row in the right field seats. The homer was the right fielder's 11th.

Caminero snapped Lopez's string of zeroes in the bottom half of the frame, lining a bases-loaded single to right to trim the Rays' deficit to 4-2.

While Bradley settled in and held the Twins without a run over four innings, his club chipped away at Lopez. Diaz's RBI double to right in the seventh was reviewed for a rules check for more than 10 minutes after Wallner leaped over the short wall on the run.

Minnesota's Jhoan Duran converted his 22nd save with a perfect ninth that featured two strikeouts.

--Field Level Media