HOUSTON _ The Twins sought revenge against the Astros on Friday for crimes committed in Target Field back in May, only to be reminded of why they sought revenge in the first place.
They were pulverized, once again, by baseball's newest juggernaut as the Astros beat the Twins, 10-5.
Houston knocked out starter Jose Berrios in the second inning, his shortest outing in 12 starts this season, then continued their battery on reliever Phil Hughes. The Astros entered the break 10 games better than the Red Sox, who have the second-best record in the American League. And they continued their dominance over a Twins team that looks nowhere in their league.
Houston is the dangerous team with young players with upside and power up and down the lineup. They had scored at least 10 runs in five of their previous seven games before the All-Star Game, including a 19-1 beatdown of the Blue Jays in Toronto. They won 14 of their last 19 games before the break.
The Twins publicly stated their desire to pay the Astros back for the three games played at Target Field on May 29-31, when they were outscored 40-16. A tall task. Houston entered the game leading the majors with 527 runs scored and three players _ George Springer, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa _ among the top five in the AL in on base-plus-slugging percentage.
"They are a tough team to slow down," Twins manager Paul Molitor said before the game. "Looking at their numbers, you always get a, 'who's hot,' page, and they are pretty much all on it. And their numbers look more like American Legion than American League."
And the Astros beat Twins pitchers over their heads with the numbers after Brian Dozier led off the game with his 21st career leadoff homer, establishing a team record.
Berrios struck out Brian McCann to start the fifth but the next eight Astros reached base. Actually, the inning could have been vastly different.
With a man on and one out, Yuli Gurriel sent a grounder to Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco that should have been converted into at least one out. Polanco tried to scoop the ball up with his glove and shovel it to Dozier at second, giving them a shot at a double play.
Polanco botched the shovel, and both runners were safe. Berrios gave up three consecutive run-scoring hits, walked a batter, gave up a sacrifice fly then a RBI single to Correa as Houston took a 5-1 lead. Berrios was replaced by Phil Hughes, whose 0-2 changeup to Brian McCann was jacked into the seats in right for a three-run homer and an 8-1 lead.
Polanco's error undoubtedly was costly, but Berrios has to wear some of this, too. He threw 29 pitches after the error and failed to control the damage. He fell behind on 11 of the 13 batters he faced, so he really wasn't in position to bail out his shortstop.
What should be more concerning to the Twins than the rout is that Berrios has a 7.11 ERA over his past four starts. He fell to 8-3 with a 3.70 ERA _ as just two of seven runs scored on his watch were earned.
Houston added two runs in the third, including a solo homer by Marwin Gonzalez, to take a 10-1 lead. At that point, Houston had outscored the Twins 50-17 for the season and 99-38 over nine meetings going back to last season.
Dozier cleared the bases with a triple in the fourth to make it 10-4 and a sacrifice fly by Polanco in the fifth got the Twins within 10-5.
