HOUSTON — The Twins batting order Thursday night against Houston didn't include many surprises until you reached the bottom three hitters.
Willians Astudillo batted seventh, Trevor Larnach eighth and Andrelton Simmons ninth. There are a couple of free swingers in there, with Astudillo's approach leading to contact and Simmons' leading to outs.
In Larnach's case, he was the only lefthanded hitter in the lineup against Astros lefthander Framber Valdez. The same Larnach who, over his previous 20 games, batted .132 with 33 strikeouts and a .372 on base-plus-slugging percentage. But it was a night for the unexpected, as Larnach delivered an RBI double in his first at-bat, then drew two walks to contribute to the Twins' 5-3 victory. The Twins scored four runs in the second, then got a bunt hit from Simmons in the eighth for the fifth run. Houston got a two-run homer in the ninth, but Alexander Colome came on to get the final out.
One reason Larnach was in the lineup was the double he hit in his final at-bat on Wednesday in Cincinnati, which got manager Rocco Baldelli's attention.
On July 7, Larnach was batting .262 with seven homers, 19 RBI and an .806 OPS. Despite being pitched backward — seeing few fastballs in fastball counts — Larnach was more than holding his own. Then came the slump that lasted until his final at-bat Wednesday, giving Baldelli confidence to play him on Thursday against Valdez, who beat the Twins in Game 1 of the AL wild card series last year.
"It hasn't been easy for sure," Larnach said. "It's been the most frustrating time of my life."
The Twins caught the Astros on their return from Los Angeles, as their red-eye landed at about 7:30 a.m.
Rob Refsynder, fresh off the injured list, Miguel Sano and Astudillo opened the second inning with singles, with Austudillo's scoring Refsynder with the game's first run. Valdez's 2-1 breaking ball was up a little, and Larnach pounded it to right for an RBI single. Two more runs scored on a groundout by Simmons and an infield hit by Jorge Polanco.
