Michael Conforto hit a three-run homer to highlight a four-run first inning and five San Francisco pitchers combined to allow just four hits as the Giants earned a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday in Minneapolis.
Conforto socked his fifth home run in the past 11 games. Blake Sabol doubled and walked twice and J.D. Davis added an RBI double for San Francisco, which won for the sixth time in seven games.
Sean Manaea (2-2) picked up the win with 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Scott Alexander pitched a hitless ninth to pick up his first save of the season and 10th of his career.
Kyle Garlick homered for Minnesota, which lost for the fourth time in five games. Carlos Correa, playing against the Giants for the first time since they backed out of a 13-year, $350 million contract last December over concerns about an old ankle injury, went 2-for-4 with a double.
Bailey Ober (3-1), coming off a 5-1 win over Clayton Kershaw and Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium last Tuesday, took the loss after allowing four runs on three hits over five innings. He walked three and struck out two.
Ober, who had given up a total of six runs in five previous starts this year, surrendered four runs during a 39-pitch first.
LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski opened the inning with back-to-back walks. Davis then lined a double over the head of left fielder Willi Castro to drive in Wade. Conforto followed with his ninth home run of the season, a 413-foot line drive into the bullpen in left center to make it 4-0.
The Twins, held to just three hits over the first seven innings by opener John Brebbia, Manaea and Tristan Beck, cut it to 4-1 in the eighth. Garlick hit his second homer of the year, a 427-foot drive into the second deck in left center off Beck.
One out later, Beck hit Byron Buxton with a pitch and was replaced by Tyler Rogers, who walked Donovan Solano to give the Twins runners at first and second. However, Rogers rebounded to strike out both Kyle Farmer and Castro to get out of the jam.
–Field Level Media
