Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sanó homered in the fifth inning to pad Minnesota’s record home run total and the Twins beat the Boston Red Sox 6-5 Tuesday night.
Jake Cave added a two-run triple for the Twins, who won for the ninth time in 10 games and hold a 6 1/2 game lead in the AL Central with 24 games remaining.
Minnesota extended its major league record to 271 homers with nearly four weeks left in the regular season.
Rafael Devers and Andrew Benintendi homered for the Red Sox, who struggled against a parade of relievers and couldn’t rally all the way back after falling behind 6-0.
Six Twins pitchers combined on a six-hitter, with only four hits allowed before Benintendi’s two-out homer in the eighth off Taylor Rogers.
Rogers returned for the ninth and got his 23rd save, striking out Devers for the final out with the tying run at second.
Lewis Thorpe (2-1) got the win despite allowing three runs and two hits in 3 1/3 innings following opener Randy Dobnak.
