Six Straight for Minnesota: Twins Roll to 3-1 Win in Opener vs. SF

The Minnesota Twins made it six wins in a row on Friday Night, beating the San Francisco Giants in the series opener at Target Field.

Chris Paddack was fantastic in the win, striking out 6 and allowing just 3 hits over 7 1/3 innings of work. Paddack advanced his season record to 1-3 on the mound.

Matt Chapman homered with two outs in the seventh to spoil the shutout bid for Paddack (1-3), who had six strikeouts without a walk in his first win since last June 10.

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The lanky, long-haired right-hander was pulled with one runner on and one out in the eighth, his second-longest start in four injury-limited seasons with the Twins. Paddack had a perfect game going until a sharp two-out single in the sixth inning by rookie Christian Koss.

Byron Buxton, who reached base three times, hit the first pitch from Giants starter Jordan Hicks (1-4) off the wall in right-center field for a triple and scored on a single by Trevor Larnach.

Hicks went six innings for his longest appearance since his first start of the season on March 31. The right-hander allowed a two-out RBI single to Carlos Correa in the fourth and another run in the fifth when he hit one batter and uncorked a wild pitch.

The Twins (19-20) matched their longest winning streak since six straight from last June 12-18.

The Giants (24-15) were a season-best 10 games above .500 entering the series.

Key moment

Buxton, who wasn't credited with an RBI on his one-out single because Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos bobbled the scoop for an error, got Harrison Bader home for a 3-0 lead in the fifth.

Key stat

Buxton has multiple hits in 13 of his last 23 games, going 31 for 92 with three doubles, three triples, seven homers, 20 runs and 19 RBI during that span.

Up next

Logan Webb starts for the Giants on Saturday night, when Joe Ryan will pitch for the Twins. Ryan's start was pushed back two days by an illness.

Listen to Minnesota Twins baseball all season long here in the Sioux Empire on ESPN 102.3 AM 1000 KSOO. Saturday's game begins at 6:15 with pregame coverage starting on ESPN Sioux Falls at 5:30!