Berrios whiffs season-high 11 hitters, Twins top Marlins 7-4

MIAMI — Jose Berrios struck out a season-high 11 in seven innings and the Minnesota Twins hit three homers in a 7-4 win over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.

Max Kepler hit his 29th homer of the season, Mitch Garver added a three-run shot and Eddie Rosario had a two-run home run as the Twins won for the fifth time in six games. Minnesota leads the majors with 209 home runs, 16 shy of the club record set in 1963. It was the 32nd time this season the Twins hit at least three homers in a game.

Berrios (10-5) retired the first 12 batters he faced, including six on strikeouts, before Neil Walker led off the fifth inning with a dribbler down the third-base line. Starlin Castro followed with a base hit to center. The 25-year-old right-hander settled in and retired the next nine batters before being lifted with a big lead. He allowed just two hits and didn’t walk a batter while lowering his ERA to 2.80.

Miami’s Brian Anderson hit a grand slam in the ninth inning to cut the Marlins’ deficit to 7-4.

Taylor Rogers came on to strike out the final two batters, earning his 17th save in 22 chances.

Garver’s three-run homer, his 20th, gave the Twins a 3-0 lead in the third.

The Twins added four runs on five hits in the fifth inning. Kepler led off with a homer. After Garver singled, Rosario connected for a two-run homer to right field. Marwin Gonzalez doubled to give Minnesota a 7-0 lead.

Anderson’s slam, his second of the season, came off Sean Poppen after the Marlins opened the inning with three straight singles.

Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara (4-10) allowed seven runs in 4 2/3 innings.

UP NEXT

Twins: RHP Michael Pineda (7-5, 4.30 ERA) will pitch Thursday’s series finale, looking to stay hot with a 3-2 record and 2.87 ERA over his last eight starts.

Marlins: RHP Jordan Yamamoto (4-2, 3.64) allowed a career-high six runs on two hits over four innings in a loss against Arizona.