Twins Easily Handle Tigers – Rangers Also Win

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Eduardo Escobar homered and drove in two runs and Tyler Duffey struck out seven while pitching into the seventh inning to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Monday night.

Duffey (3-1) gave up one run on seven hits and walked two in 6 1-3 innings, and Joe Mauer went 3 for 5, extending his streak of games reaching base to 34 for the Twins, who entered the night trailing the Texas Rangers by one game for the American League's second wild card.

Kyle Lobstein (3-8) gave up six runs on seven hits in just 1 2-3 innings for the Tigers. J.D. Martinez had two hits for Detroit, but Steven Moya had four of the team's 11 strikeouts.

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Rangers moved within a half-game of AL West leading Houston, when Prince Fielder hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning to lead Texas to a 5-3 win over the Astros on Monday night in the opener of a pivotal four-game series.

Mitch Moreland hit his team-leading 20th home run for Texas, which has won four straight against the Astros and leads the season series 9-4.

Fielder's homer came on 3-2 pitch from Will Harris (5-4). He had two hits and scored three times.

Keone Kela (7-5) got the win, retiring one of two batters, and Shawn Tolleson earned his 32nd save in 34 attempts.

The Astros' Jose Altuve hit Cole Hamels' sixth pitch of the game for his 12th homer of the year.