Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee homered in the eighth inning — two of three home runs surrendered by St. Louis reliever Ryne Stanek — and the Minnesota Twins outlasted the Cardinals 9-8 on Friday night.
Kody Clemens hit his 10th home run on the third pitch from Stanek to tie it at 7 after the right-hander entered with two on and two out in the seventh.
Stanek (2-1) returned for the eighth, and Lewis hit his fifth homer on his first pitch to tie it at 8. Lee followed one out later with his 11th.
Anthony Banda (2-0) worked out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the eighth to get the win. Andrew Morris pitched a perfect ninth for his second career save.
Alec Burleson homered for a fourth straight game to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the first off Joe Ryan. The 419-foot shot was his 12th of the season and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games.
Byron Buxton hit his 21st homer — and fourth in six games — off Kyle Leahy to tie it 1-1 heading to the second. The center fielder added two doubles and walked, scoring three runs.
Blaze Jordan had an RBI single in his first big league at-bat to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead in the second and finished 2 for 4. He is the 11th Cardinal to single in a run his first time up. JJ Wetherholt added an RBI single and the Cardinals led 3-1 after two innings.
Lewis singled in the fifth before scoring on Tristan Gray's one-out single to cut it to 3-2, and Josh Bell doubled in a run in the fifth to tie it 3-all.
Lewis had a sacrifice fly off George Soriano to give Minnesota a 4-3 lead in the sixth.
Jordan Walker extended his hitting streak to nine games when he drove in three runs with a two-out double — after a bases-loaded walk to Burleson — to give St. Louis a 7-4 lead in the seventh.
Ryan struck out eight in six innings, allowing three runs on six hits.
Leahy gave up four runs on eight hits in five innings.
