Mauricio Dubon hit a walk-off single to left field with two outs in the 10th inning, and the Houston Astros completed a three-game series sweep of the Minnesota Twins with a 2-1 win on Sunday.
Dubon drove home Jake Meyers with a high fly ball off Twins reliever Cole Sands (3-3) that left fielder Willi Castro failed to catch at the wall. Meyers opened the bottom of the 10th placed at second base, but had not moved up after a ground out and a strike out.
The Astros rallied against Twins closer Jhoan Duran for a second consecutive game, pulling even in the ninth when Victor Caratini hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Jeremy Pena, who walked to lead off the frame. With one out, Pena stole second base and advanced to third on a Jose Altuve infield single.
Josh Hader (4-0) earned the win for Houston with a perfect 10th. The Astros completed a six-game homestand at 5-1.
Brooks Lee extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a solo home run for a 1-0 lead in the top of the third. Lee finished 3-for-4 and homered for a second consecutive game. He owns the longest hit streak by a Twin since Carlos Correa produced a 16-game hitting streak last season.
Lee, who belted his career-best seventh homer 374 feet to left, represented the lone blemish for Astros left-hander Brandon Walter, who excelled while making his third spot start for Houston.
Walter retired the Twins in order in the second, fourth, and sixth innings and worked a career-best 6 2/3 innings. He worked around a two-out single from Castro in the first and stranded Correa and Castro by getting Ty France to fly out to right field in the third. Castro, who finished 3-for-4, struck out with Lee and Ryan Jeffers in scoring position to end the fifth.
Walter sandwiched strikeouts of Harrison Bader and Christian Vazquez around a Lee single before departing in the seventh. He allowed six hits and did not walk a batter while recording a career-high nine strikeouts.
Twins right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson logged five shutout innings. He needed only 26 pitches to complete one trip through the Houston order and retired the top of the Astros’ lineup in order in the bottom of the fourth. Woods Richardson didn’t throw more than 11 pitches in any frame before he surrendered an infield single to Meyers with one out in the fifth. Cam Smith followed with a 10-pitch walk to nudge Meyers into scoring position, but Woods Richardson rallied to escape that inning unscathed. He threw just 53 pitches.
–Field Level Media
