Elias Diaz went 2-for-5 with two homers and three RBIs, and the San Diego Padres pulled away for a 12-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night in Minneapolis.
Ramon Laureano finished 2-for-5 with one homer and three RBIs for San Diego, which evened the series at one win apiece with the rubber match set for Sunday. Gavin Sheets and Jake Cronenworth added two RBIs apiece.
Byron Buxton went 1-for-2 with a homer and two RBIs to lead Minnesota. Trevor Larnach finished 2-for-3 and drove in a run.
Padres left-hander Adrian Morejon (11-4) earned the victory with one scoreless inning of relief. Morejon followed starter Nick Pivetta, who gave up three runs on five hits in five innings.
Twins right-hander Mick Abel (2-4) allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits in one inning. Abel’s rough performance in relief spoiled a strong start by Taj Bradley, who limited the Padres to one run on one hit in five innings.
The score was tied at 3-all when the Padres erupted for seven runs in the seventh.
Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the decisive inning with a single to left. That started a string of four consecutive hits for the Padres, including back-to-back RBI singles off the bats of Manny Machado and Ryan O’Hearn.
Two batters later, Sheets singled to drive in Machado and give the Padres a 6-3 lead. Cronenworth ripped a two-run double later in the inning to make it 8-3, and Diaz finished off the outburst with a two-run shot over the wall in left field to increase the lead to 10-3.
The blast marked the second homer of the night for Diaz, who also hit a solo shot in the fifth.
San Diego padded its lead with two more runs in the eighth. O’Hearn led off the inning with a single to left, and Laureano followed with a two-run homer to left-center field.
The shot gave Laureano 22 homers on the season, including seven homers in 27 games since joining San Diego.
