May 22: Houston 4, Minnesota 3
Seven of Camilo Pascual’s eight innings were stellar for Minnesota, but he threw it all away in the fifth. There were two outs and two on when Pascual fielded a grounder from Craig Biggio but misfired an errant throw to first for an error and run scored. The next three batters went BB-1B-1B and the Twins were trailing 1-4 by the time the inning ended. Goose Goslin and Cecil Travis both hit their first homers of the year in the late going to pull within a run, but Houston hung on for the win.
R H BB HOU 000 040 000 - 4 5 3 MN 000 100 011 - 3 6 4 HR: G. Goslin (1), C. Travis (1) starters IP R ER HR BB SO W. Miller 7.0 1 1 0 4 5 C. Pascual 8.0 4 0 0 0 1 HOU 22-22, MN 20-23
May 23: Minnesota 3, Houston 2
It was another tight affair the next day. Tony Oliva was the difference, driving in all three Minnesota runs on two singles and a homer. Bert Blyleven struck out a season-high 11.
R H BB HOU 000 002 000 - 2 7 3 MN 101 000 10x - 3 6 5 HR: M. Ensberg (4), T. Oliva (3) starters IP R ER HR BB SO M. Scott 6.0 3 3 1 4 3 B. Blyleven 7.0 2 2 1 2 11 HOU 22-23, MN 21-23
May 25: Minnesota 6, Houston 5
Another one-run squeaker closed out the series. Mike Cuellar melted down in the bottom of the second inning when Kirby Puckett walked, Mickey Vernon, Goose Goslin, Joe Mauer, and Joe Cronin all singled, and Rod Carew tripled to hang a five spot. The Twins added an insurance run in the seventh that proved big as Houston stormed back to within a run on Moises Alou’s 11th homer in the eighth. Joe Nathan pitched around two base-runners in the ninth to save the game for Minnesota.
R H BB HOU 000 001 220 - 5 8 8 MN 050 000 10x - 6 11 2 HR: M. Alou (11) starters IP R ER HR BB SO M. Cuellar 6.1 6 6 0 1 6 J. Shaw 6.0 3 3 0 5 2 HOU 22-24, MN 22-23
