The Minnesota Twins (67-63) took a 7-0 lead this afternoon at Target Field, and hung on for a 7-5 victory over the visiting Houston Astros (72-59) -- taking two of three from Stros over the weekend, and lurk 1.5 games behind Texas for that final Wild Card spot.

Ervin Santana returned to form to throw seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and the Twins got home runs from Eduardo Nunez and Miguel Sano.

Brian Dozier started a 7th inning rally with a one-out triple, Eduardo Escobar followed with an RBI double and scored on a single from Joe Mauer and Sano gave Minnesota a 7-0 lead with a two-run rocket to left for his 13th homer since being called up on July 2nd.

The Astros made it interesting in the ninth, with Chris Carter's three-run blast off Ryan O'Rourke, and a two-run shot from second baseman Jose Altuve off Trevor May. But May got Marwin Gonzalez to strike out to seal the Twins' series victory.

Next up for the Twins: A three-game series against the Chicago White Sox this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Target Field. The Twins are off tomorrow.

Go Twins!

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