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HOUSTON — The Twins batting order Thursday night against Houston didn't include many surprises until you reached the bottom three hitters.
Willians Astudillo batted seventh, Trevor Larnach eighth and Andrelton Simmons ninth. There are a couple of free swingers in there, with Astudillo's approach leading to contact and Simmons' leading to outs.
In Larnach's case, he was the only lefthanded hitter in the lineup against Astros lefthander Framber Valdez. The same Larnach who, over his previous 20 games, batted .132 with 33 strikeouts and a .372 on base-plus-slugging percentage. But it was a night for the unexpected, as Larnach delivered an RBI double in his first at-bat, then drew two walks to contribute to the Twins' 5-3 victory. The Twins scored four runs in the second, then got a bunt hit from Simmons in the eighth for the fifth run. Houston got a two-run homer in the ninth, but Alexander Colome came on to get the final out.
One reason Larnach was in the lineup was the double he hit in his final at-bat on Wednesday in Cincinnati, which got manager Rocco Baldelli's attention.
On July 7, Larnach was batting .262 with seven homers, 19 RBI and an .806 OPS. Despite being pitched backward — seeing few fastballs in fastball counts — Larnach was more than holding his own. Then came the slump that lasted until his final at-bat Wednesday, giving Baldelli confidence to play him on Thursday against Valdez, who beat the Twins in Game 1 of the AL wild card series last year.
"It hasn't been easy for sure," Larnach said. "It's been the most frustrating time of my life."
The Twins caught the Astros on their return from Los Angeles, as their red-eye landed at about 7:30 a.m.
Rob Refsynder, fresh off the injured list, Miguel Sano and Astudillo opened the second inning with singles, with Austudillo's scoring Refsynder with the game's first run. Valdez's 2-1 breaking ball was up a little, and Larnach pounded it to right for an RBI single. Two more runs scored on a groundout by Simmons and an infield hit by Jorge Polanco.
Valdez kept feeding Larnach curveballs, but the rookie has seen plenty of them all season. He saw three of them during his next at-bat in the fourth, taking them all for balls while he drew a walk. Larnach drew a second walk in the eighth against Cristian Javier. He saw just one fastball in that at-bat, but he's expecting that now.
"Whether I produce or haven't produced, they have given me so many opportunities and I couldn't be more grateful for that," Larnach said. "Like I said, I'm going to keep grinding my tail off to get where I need to be. Just because I'm up here it doesn't, mean I'm satisfied."
While Larnach stacked good at-bats, rookie righthander Griffin Jax stacked scoreless innings. Jax retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced as he held Houston to one run, on Jason Castro's home run in the sixth, over 5 1/3 innings. He wasn't dominating, as he failed to strike out a batter, but he held Houston to three hits before turning things over to the bullpen.
The Twins offense has no choice but to evolve in the aftermath of Nelson Cruz being traded to Tampa Bay. Larnach can be part of the solution. Despite batting .225 entering Thursday's game, he's showing he can be patient and wait for mistakes, which is an encouraging sign from a developing hitter.
"One thing is I don't want our players to forget that they're really good at what they do, and this is the big leagues and it is challenging, and there are going to be times where things aren't going as smoothly as you'd like, but Trevor Larnach is a tremendously talented young man," Baldelli said. "He's a guy that's had nothing but success in his life with the bat in his hands."
"I have no doubt that he's going to adjust to this league, just like the league has adjusted to him a little bit, because I know he has the ability to do that and the mind to do that."
