Los Angeles, United States—Three was the charm for Nelson Cruz again on Saturday (Sunday Philippine time) as the Minnesota Twins designated hitter belted three home runs in an 11-3 pounding of the Kansas City Royals.
Cruz’s outburst came just 10 days after he smacked three homers in a game against the Chicago White Sox.
Cruz, who notched his fourth game of the season with five runs-batted-in, got the ball rolling with a two-run homer to the opposite field in the first inning that put the Twins up 2-0.
One inning later he belted a 466-foot shot to left center field.
His third homer of the night came in the sixth inning, when he deposited a pitch from Royals reliever Jorge Lopez into the right field bleachers.
Cruz now has 11 homers and 23 runs-batted-in his last nine starts.
The 39-year-old became the first player in Twins history to have multiple three-homer games in a Major League Baseball season.
Meanwhile, Aaron Sanchez made his Houston debut one to remember by pitching six outstanding innings to launch the Astros toward a combined no-hitter in a 9-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
Sanchez, acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays at the July 31 trade deadline, teamed with relief pitchers Will Harris, Joe Biagini and Chris Devenski to keep the Mariners without a hit.
It was the second time in less than a month that Seattle were no-hit by multiple pitchers.
The Angels used two pitchers in a combined no-hitter against Seattle on July 12.
“Just trying to have a good first impression,” said Sanchez, who was a Major League Baseball All-Star in 2016, when he led the American League in earned run average, but was struggling this season when he was traded by the Blue Jays.
When he arrived in Houston, Sanchez had lost 13 straight decisions, his 14 losses the most for a starting pitcher in the major leagues.
With two outs in the first he hit Omar Narvaez, but then retired the next nine batters he faced.
Sanchez walked Daniel Vogelbach with two outs in the fourth, and he walked Mallex Smith with one out in the sixth before retiring the next two batters he faced to end the inning.
Harris replaced Sanchez – who struck out six and walked two – to start the seventh and after working one hitless inning was replaced by Biagini, who also worked a no-hit inning before Devenski pitched a perfect ninth.
Devenski retired Vogelbach on a fly ball for the final out.
The no-hitter was the 12th in Astros history and first since Mike Fiers no-hit the Dodgers in 2015.
It was the club’s second combined no-hitter. The other came on June 11, 2003.