Castro powers Twins to thump 8-2 win over Astros

Jason Castro homered, doubled and drove in four runs and Jose Berrios won his fourth consecutive start as the Minnesota Twins cruised to an 8-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis. Jorge Polanco doubled and tripled and Marwin Gonzalez and Jonathan Schoop also had two hits for Minnesota which won three of four games in the series with the Astros. Castro, who finished 2-for-4 and scored twice, tied his career-high with the four RBIs.

Berrios (5-1) improved to 4-0 at Target Field this season, allowing two runs on seven hits over seven innings. He struck out five and didn't walk a batter while also snapping a personal three-game losing streak against the Astros. Alex Bregman homered and Aledmys Diaz had two hits for Houston. Brad Peacock (2-2) suffered the loss for the Astros, allowing seven runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings. Peacock dropped to 0-4 in five career starts against the Twins.

Bregman gave the Astros a 1-0 lead in the first with his sixth home run of the season but Minnesota came back to tie it in the third on Castro's third homer of the season and second in 11 days against Peacock, a 426-foot drive deep into the bullpen in left-center. The Twins then sent 10 men to bat in the fourth, parlaying six hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly into six runs. Castro lined a two-run double off the left field fence, Byron Buxton had an RBI triple off the bottom of the fence in left-center and Nelson Cruz added an RBI double to highlight the inning, which also featured an RBI single by Schoop and a sacrifice fly by Max Kepler.

Castro drove in his fourth run in the fifth to make it 8-1 with a fielder's choice that drove in Gonzalez, who had walked and advanced to third on a single by Schoop. The Astros loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh with consecutive singles by Yuli Gurriel, Josh Reddick and Diaz. But Berrios avoided a big inning by getting Robinson Chirinos to strike out followed by a sacrifice fly by Tony Kemp and a fly out by George Springer to end the threat.