San Diego: Kevin Correia scattered three runs and four hits over six innings, Kurt Suzuki hit an inside-the-park home run and the Minnesota Twins defeated the San Diego Padres 5-3 on Tuesday night.
Correia (2-5), a San Diego native, struck out six and walked a batter in winning for only the second time in his last six starts. Glen Perkins pitched the ninth for his 13th save in 15 chances.
Ian Kennedy (2-6) worked into the seventh for San Diego, giving up four runs as he lost for the seventh time in eight starts against American League teams. It was the second of Kennedy’s two wild pitches that helped the Twins score the go-ahead run in the seventh. His first wild pitch in the sixth let the Twins tie the game.
Suzuki’s inside-the-park home run, the first by a Twin since Joe Mauer’s on July 21, 2007 against the Angels, made it 5-3 in the eighth inning.
Eduardo Escobar walked to begin the Twins’ seventh, took second on Aaron Hicks’ sacrifice bunt and moved to third on a wild pitch. Pinch-hitter Josmil Pinto’s fly to right scored Escobar for the 4-3 lead.
Correia, who pitched for the Padres from 2009-10, retired the first 12 batters before Chase Headley doubled to right in the fifth. During that stretch Correia struck out four, with only four balls hit out of the infield.
Will Venable followed Headley’s double with a single and Headley scored on Jedd Gyorko’s grounder through the left side. After the runners advanced on Yonder Alonso’s fly to right, Yasmani Grandal’s sacrifice fly scored Venable to tie the score at 2-2.
Kennedy’s single gave the Padres the advantage as Gyorko scored the inning’s third run.
The Twins tied the game in the sixth when Trevor Plouffe scored on a wild pitch after reaching on a double and going to third on Chris Parmelee’s ground-out.
In the third, Plouffe had extended the Twins’ lead to 2-0 when he singled in Brian Dozier. Dozier led off with a single, which extended his hitting streak to 10 games, tying a career-high. His 41 runs lead the AL.
The Twins, who beat the Padres for the seventh straight time, took the early lead when Parmelee opened the second with 417-foot homer to centre, his third of the season.
