Twins make it 12 in a row with 3-1 victory vs. Red Sox

MINNEAPOLIS — The fate of the Twins' longest-in-the-majors streak turned on the fate of a couple of longest-in-the-league streaks on Saturday.

Willi Castro extended his career-best hitting streak to 10 straight games with a couple of key singles. Rafael Devers went 0 for 4 for the Red Sox, ending his hitting streak at nine.

Ergo: The Twins have won 12 straight games for the first time in 33 years.

Pablo López celebrated Target Field's first "Pablo Day" by allowing only one run over six innings, and Max Kepler moved into position to become the ballpark's all-time leading home run hitter, carrying the Twins to a 3-1 Saturday matinee victory over the Red Sox. The dozen consecutive wins ties a 1980 streak as the second-longest in Twins history, and moves them just three victories short of the 1991 team's 15-game stretch.

As he has been throughout the Twins' dozen consecutive victories, Castro seemingly was in the middle of everything. The utility man singled in the first inning to move Jose Miranda into position to score on Carlos Correa's RBI ground out, then led off the sixth inning with another single, giving him three consecutive multi-hit games and six during the Twins' nonstop stretch of winning.

Castro moved to third base on back-to-back wild pitches by Red Sox reliever Justin Slaten, then scored on Correa's sacrifice fly to the warning track in center field.

Still, despite his .440 batting average (22 for 50) during the streak, Castro wasn't perfect. With runners on second and third in the seventh inning, he hit a grounder to third base that the Red Sox turned into an out at the plate.

That, plus Max Kepler's first home run at Target Field this season — and 79th of his career, leaving him one short of Brian Dozier's career record at the downtown ballpark — was more than enough for the Twins to finish off the Red Sox.

López did most of the work, performing before a few dozen fans wearing special-issue "Pablo" jerseys, some of them waving Venezuelan flags, as part of a new promotion. The right-hander surrendered a two-out double to Tyler O'Neill in the first inning and a run-scoring single to Willer Abreu one pitch later.

But he also retired 14 of the next 17 hitters he faced, including Devers three times, once on a double play.

Four Twins relievers finished off Boston for the second straight night, with Steven Okert getting the most critical out. With the bases loaded in the seventh inning, Okert ran the count to Devers to 3-2, but then got him swinging on a slider at the bottom of the zone to end the threat.