The Twins took the opener of a brief two-game series with the San Diego Padres. The Twins beat San Diego 3-1, Tuesday night.
It was Minnesota’s ninth straight win over the Padres.
There wasn’t a lot of offense in the game and considering the pitching matchup, which featured San Diego’s red-hot rookie Jesse Hahn against the Twins most consistent starter this year Phil Hughes.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Kennys Vargas crushed a three-run blast in the sixth inning, for his first Major League home run, in his first game at Target Field.
That was enough run support for Hughes (11-8). He put together another solid outing. Hughes went six innings and gave up one run on seven hits and struck out nine.
Phil Hughes ranks 3rd in Best Control among AL pitchers in annual @BaseballAmerica Best Tools manager survey. David Price, Iwakuma 1-2.
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) August 5, 2014
Caleb Thielbar, Casey Fien and Glen Perkins gave the Twins three scoreless innings of relief. Perkins picked up his 28th save.
Yonder Alonso provided the only run for the Padres. His fifth inning solo home run gave the Padres their brief 1-0 lead.
San Diego had a chance to score a run earlier in the game, but Oswaldo Arcia and Brian Dozier combined to have a great relay to the plate and Kurt Suzuki made a diving tag to cut down Yasmani Grandal at the plate.
The two teams continue their series on Wednesday afternoon. Kevin Correia is on the mound for Minnesota against San Diego’s Odrisamer Despaigne .
