Kyle Farmer hit a three-run home run in the second inning to give a boost to a struggling lineup, and Matt Wallner and Carlos Santana also homered for the Minnesota Twins in a 10-5 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night, ending a four-game losing streak.
Pablo López (15-8) secured his fourth consecutive win with 10 strikeouts over seven innings and didn’t allow any earned runs. He held off a three-run homer by Zach Neto in the fifth inning that made the score 6-4.
“It’s no secret how the vibes were feeling lately,” López said. “We’re not used to that. We’re used to playing loose. We’re used to having fun, and that was really cool and special to see that.”
The Twins (77-68), who had lost 15 of their last 21 games, maintained a three-game lead with 17 games left in the race for the final AL wild-card spot. Detroit (74-71) is the closest competitor to Minnesota, which is six games behind Cleveland in the AL Central.
“Yes, our margin for error keeps shrinking, but we’re just in the mindset that winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners,” said López, who lowered his ERA to 3.88, its lowest since April 11.
Wallner hit a solo home run in the third inning and a two-run double with two outs in the sixth inning that drove Angels starter Griffin Canning (5-13) from the game. Canning allowed a career-high 10 runs on nine hits and three walks.
One run was unearned because of a grounder that slipped between first baseman Nolan Schanuel’s legs.
Trevor Larnach reached base all four times he batted, with a single and three walks, and scored three times for the Twins. They also got two RBIs from Ryan Jeffers and a two-run homer from Santana, his team-leading 21st of the season, sending Canning to an 0-10 record in 13 road starts.
