Max Kepler homered, doubled and scored two runs and Carlos Correa also hit a home run to lead the visiting Minnesota Twins to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday afternoon in the rubber match of their three-game series.
Steven Okert (1-0) picked up the win in relief of starter Simeon Woods Richardson, who was lifted after allowing just three singles over 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Okert retired all four batters he faced, striking out two. Jhoan Duran picked up his fourth save.
Joey Meneses homered as part of a 2-for-4 day, Ildemaro Vargas doubled and finished with two hits and Luis Garcia Jr. also had two hits for Washington.
Jake Irvin (2-5), a product of Thomas Jefferson High School in Bloomington, Minn., who grew up attending Twins games, took the loss in his first career start against his hometown team. Irvin allowed two runs on five hits over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Kepler led off with his fourth home run of the season, a 409-foot drive to right-center field.
Correa made it 2-0 in the sixth when he lined his fourth homer to left.
Washington cut the lead to 2-1 in the seventh. Garcia led off with a single and advanced to third on a double by Vargas. After Joey Gallo struck out, pinch hitter Keibert Ruiz grounded out to first to drive in Garcia and send Vargas to third. Jacob Young followed with a hard grounder up the middle that Correa made a diving stop on before getting up and throwing to first to end the threat.
Minnesota picked up a key insurance run in the ninth against reliever Hunter Harvey when Kepler led off with a double to center and scored on a single by Ryan Jeffers.
Meneses made it 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth when he opened the frame with his second homer of the year while facing Duran. Garcia followed with a single and pinch runner Nasim Nunez moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Vargas. But Duran got out of the jam by striking out Gallo and getting Ruiz to ground out weakly to second to end the game.
–Field Level Media
