Jose Miranda's three-run homer sparks Twins to victory over Astros

Miranda's 389-foot shot to left-center field put Minnesota ahead for good Saturday afternoon.

Nolan O'Hara | Apr 5, 2025

Minnesota Twins third baseman Jose Miranda reacts after hitting a three-run home run during the fourth inning against the Houston Astros at Target Field in Minneapolis on April 5, 2025. / Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images

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Minnesota Twins

It only took one swing for the momentum to flip to the Minnesota Twins.

Jose Miranda hit a three-run home run during a six-run fourth inning that powered the Twins to a 6-1 victory over
the Houston Astros in front of an announced crowd of 16,082 at Target Field in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon.

Trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning, Byron Buxton led off and was hit by a pitch from Spencer Arrighetti and stole second before Trevor Larnach was walked. Ty France singled to left field, and Jose Altuve bobbled the throw, allowing Buxton to score from second and tie the game. Two outs later, Miranda's 389-foot shot to left-center gave the Twins (3-5) a 4-1 lead.

It was the first Twins homer of likely many more to come at Target Field this season.

"Seeing the fans kind of go crazy in that moment, it felt really good," Miranda said.

YES WAY JOSE!!! pic.twitter.com/EAl8Y3hudh
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 5, 2025

Christian Vazquez and Matt Wallner then hit back-to-back doubles, the latter of which brought Vazquez home for another run. Minnesota added one more when Carlos Correa hit an infield single and Astros reliever Tayler Scott misfired on the throw to first, allowing Wallner to score for a 6-1 Twins lead. Those were all the runs needed to seal their first home win.

"It's a well-earned win, I think, both sides of the ball," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We put some really good at-bats together. Obviously, Miranda comes up and hammers the ball down in the zone and brings a few runs across. And sometimes you need a little spark, and that was actually a spark because we continued to do positive things and give ourselves a chance to just keep putting runs on the board, and he did it for us (Saturday)."

Bailey Ober mostly recovered nicely — both figuratively and literally — from his disastrous first outing of the season. Ober, who was ill and struggled during his first start of the year, did give up a leadoff homer to Altuve to begin the game, but he settled down after that and put up 0s in three shutout innings to follow. Ober hit 84 pitches after four innings, which marked the end of his day. He allowed just the one run off three hits while walking a pair and fanning five Astros batters.

Ober lowered his earned-run average to 12.15 from 27.00 after his first start, which came amid a stomach illness which Ober said caused him to lose eight pounds last week.

“Been feeling good throughout the week, just being able to get healthy, and yeah, felt really good," he said. "Could tell towards the end, just maybe because my pitch count was up that I was starting to get a little fatigued. ... I’m getting my strength back throughout the weight room and just getting my body weight back up, so I’m feeling a little bit better.”

The Astros (3-5) pulled Arrighetti when the Twins were in the midst of the onslaught. After no-hitting the Twins through three innings, he ultimately went just 3 2/3, allowing five runs off three hits and three walks while fanning three in a loss.

Ex-Twin Steven Okert struck out the side — Willi Castro, Eddy Julien and Miranda — against his former team in the eighth.

Twins relievers held the Astros quiet the rest of the way. Louis Varland pitched a shutout fifth inning; Cole Sands tossed a 1-2-3 sixth and picked up the win; Jorge Alcala evaded some trouble to put up a 0 in the seventh; Justin Topa threw a shutout eighth; and Jhoan Duran closed it with a shutout ninth. Twins pitchers struck out 13 Houston batters collectively.

"The whole bullpen, they've been great so far throughout the whole year," Miranda said. "They throw a lot of strikes, and they're doing their job, so it feels good to have all those guys back there."

Houston left 11 on base and went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

The Twins and Astros meet for the finale of their three-game series at 1:10 p.m. CT on Sunday.

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