Alex Kirilloff tripled in three consecutive games in April, a feat more unusual than effective, given that the Twins lost two of them.

Home runs, as it turns out, are more efficient.

Kirilloff golfed a shoe-high slider from Rangers reliever David Robertson into the Texas bullpen on Saturday. It was the second straight day that Kirilloff's power provided the game-winning margin for the Twins, this one a 5-3 victory at Target Field.

The Twins have won four straight games, and the defending World Series champions have lost six straight and 12 of their last 14. The Rangers' problem is one familiar in Minnesota: They's not scoring runs. Texas has not scored more than four runs in any game for more than two weeks, and have only 34 in their 14-game slump.

On Saturday, Chris Paddack held Texas to three hits over five innings, though two of them drove in runs. Adolis Garcia smashed a ground-rule double on one hop into the seats down the right-field line, brining home Corey Seager for a fourth-inning run, and Ezequiel Duran launched a changeup into the upper deck in left field in the fifth, his first home run of the season.

Kody Funderburk allowed an RBI double to Leody Taveras in the sixth, and down 3-2 in the eighth, the Twins seemed headed to a loss.

But Kirilloff changed all that. After Max Kepler, playing his 1,000 career game, led off the eighth with a single into right field, Robertson walked Byron Buxton. Ryan Jeffers struck out, but Kirilloff put a high arc on a low slider and drove it nearly 400 feet, giving him his first three-RBI game of the season.

Jhoan Duran needed only eight pitches to retire the Rangers in the ninth, earning his sixth save of the season.

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