HOUSTON — Royce Lewis and Victor Caratini hit back-to-back homers, Zebby Matthews pitched seven stingy innings and the Minnesota Twins held off a late rally by the Houston Astros for a 5-4 victory Monday night.Josh Bell launched a two-run shot for the Twins, who led 5-1 before Travis Adams gave up a two-run homer to Taylor Trammell with two outs in the ninth.Yoendrys Gómez entered and immediately served up Cam Smith’s second home run of the game before retiring Joey Loperfido on a grounder for his ninth save.Houston had won five of six.Matthews (4-5) limited the Astros to one run and four hits while striking out seven and walking one.Peter Lambert (6-5) held Minnesota hitless until Lewis and Caratini went deep in the fourth. Bell’s drive made it 4-1 in the sixth, and Kody Clemens added an RBI groundout in the seventh.Lambert allowed four runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings. He had won four straight decisions.Smith pulled a hanging slider onto the train tracks above left field for a solo homer in the fifth.Astros reliever Miguel Ullola made his major league debut, striking out four in two scoreless innings.Popular ReadsHouston returned home from a 5-2 trip and entered Monday an AL-best 15-10 in June.Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña sat out with left leg discomfort.Minnesota placed left-handed reliever Anthony Banda on the 15-day injured list with a left lat strain. The Twins recalled right-hander Cody Laweryson from Triple-A St. Paul.Twins RHP Joe Ryan (5-4, 3.18 ERA) faces Astros RHP Mike Burrows (3-8, 5.48) in the middle game of the series Tuesday night. ___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb …
