Josh Bell hits two homers, but Ryan Jeffers leaves with injury as Twins beat Astros

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on May 19, 2026

Published in Baseball

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There was a 117-minute rain delay in the fifth inning Monday at Target Field, and Josh Bell brought the thunder when it wasn’t raining.

Bell hit two home runs off Houston Astros starter Tatsuya Imai, and then he drove in another run with a single in the sixth inning to carry the Twins to a marathon 6-3 victory over the Houston Astros in their series opener. Bell was responsible for the team’s first four runs.

It was the 12th multihomer game of Bell’s career, which led the Twins to their sixth win in their last nine games before an announced crowd of 11,488, the team’s smallest home crowd of the season.

The Twins may have still taken a loss. Catcher Ryan Jeffers exited in the eighth inning two pitches after he shattered his bat on a swing. Jeffers called a batter’s timeout, then motioned for a trainer to meet him on the field.

Twins pitcher Kendry Rojas delivered four scoreless innings in his first major league start, yielding two hits and one walk while striking out three, and Simeon Woods Richardson stranded two runners when he pitched one inning out of the bullpen. Twins pitchers have allowed 13 runs over their last six games.

Coming out of the fifth-inning rain delay with a 3-0 lead, the Twins looked like they wished the game resumed a few minutes later. James Outman was promptly picked off first base. New reliever Andrew Morris gave up a four-pitch walk and a single.

Morris recovered when he forced a double play grounder, and the Twins offense had six straight batters reach base against reliever Jayden Murray in the bottom of the sixth inning. Batting with the bases loaded, Bell pulled an RBI single through the right side of the infield and Luke Keaschall followed with a two-run single that dropped in left field.

Bell, who was batting .176 in 51 at-bats during May and hadn’t homered since April 9, clobbered a hanging changeup from Imai for a solo homer in the second inning. The ball, which traveled an estimated 429 feet, left Bell’s bat at 112 mph and landed on the wall of juniper plants that line the center field backdrop.

Two batters after Trevor Larnach opened the fourth inning with an opposite-field single, a poke off the end of his bat, Bell belted an elevated 95-mph fastball over the left field wall for an opposite-field homer. Bell didn’t hide his excitement, hopping out of the batter’s box, turning to his teammates in the dugout and letting out a yell.

When Bell completed his second home run trot, he skipped back into the dugout. He entered with three homers in 44 games.

Rojas, a hard-throwing lefty, pitched himself into a bases-loaded jam before he recorded his first out. He plunked Jeremy Peña with a literal backfoot slider, surrendered a single to Isaac Paredes and he walked Yordan Alvarez on four pitches.

Manager Derek Shelton has repeatedly praised the quality of Rojas’ pitches. That’s the reason the Twins were willing to trade Louis Varland, a home-state pitcher who looked destined to become their next closer. “We’ve just got to make sure that he stays on the plate with it,” Shelton said.

Once Rojas started throwing strikes, good things happened.

Rojas escaped the first inning unscathed. He jammed Christian Walker with an inside slider to induce an infield pop up, and he forced Zach Dezenzo to line into an inning-ending double play.

The 23-year-old Rojas retired 11 of his final 12 batters in the longest outing of his major league career. He alerted the training staff to an issue with the nail on his left middle finger after giving up a two-out, two-strike single to Cam Smith in the second inning, then didn’t allow another baserunner.

Astros hitters whiffed on 10 of their 24 swings (42%) against Rojas, who reached 98 mph with his fastball. He owns a 1.59 ERA through 11⅓ innings despite giving up 10 hits and nine walks.

Woods Richardson, moved to the bullpen after he posted an 0-6 record and a 7.71 ERA in his first nine starts, pitched around a leadoff infield single, a soft comebacker to the mound, and a one-out walk to former Twins catcher Christian Vázquez.

With rain nearing, Peña had a soft lineout to third base, and Paredes struck out on a splitter in the dirt.

The Astros, after they trailed by six runs, scored three runs in the seventh inning against Twins reliever Justin Topa. With the tying run at the plate, Eric Orze pitched out of the inning with a groundout.

Yoendrys Gómez walked two of the first three batters in the ninth inning before Taylor Rogers earned his first save since 2023.

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