Jose Altuve homered and drove in three runs, and Kyle Tucker had a home run and a run-scoring double in the same inning as the torrid Houston Astros rolled to a 11-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader in Minneapolis.

The Astros have won nine straight games heading into the nightcap and moved into first place in the American League West by percentage points over the idle Los Angeles Angels. The game was continued on Thursday after being halted by torrential rains through three innings on Wednesday.

Houston did more than enough to win the game on Wednesday before the postponement, forging a 5-1 lead in the third off Twins starter Chris Archer (0-1).

The Astros took a 2-1 lead in the second on Jeremy Pena’s sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Jose Siri. They expanded the margin to four runs in the third on Altuve’s solo homer and a two-run double by Pena that drove home Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman.

Then the rains came. When the contest was picked up on Thursday afternoon, Minnesota’s Mark Contreras cut the lead to 5-2 with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Houston then produced a six-run sixth inning via a home run by Tucker, a two-run double by Altuve that scored Siri and Martin Maldonado, another double by Brantley to drive home Altuve, a third straight two-bagger — this one a ground-rule double by Bregman to make it 10-2, and then an RBI double by Tucker to put the game well out of reach.

The Twins managed a run in the seventh on Jorge Polanco’s run-scoring single off Astros reliever Phil Maton, but Maton was able to work his way out of a bases-loaded one-out jam to keep the game at 11-3. Maton went two innings in a season-high 38-pitch stint.

Jose Urquidy started the game for the Astros on Wednesday, allowing one run on three hits with three strikeouts before the postponement. Bryan Abreu (2-0) pitched the fourth and fifth innings, surrendering a run on two hits on 45 pitches, which was also his season high.

–Field Level Media