Martin Perez pitched eight shutout innings to win his third consecutive start and Jonathan Schoop homered to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night in Minneapolis.

It was the fourth straight quality start for Perez (4-0), who began the season in the bullpen thanks to a quirky schedule that saw the Twins have six off days over the first 16 days of the season. He allowed four hits and walked two and finished with seven strikeouts.

Nelson Cruz went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Jorge Polanco also had two hits for Minnesota, which won for the ninth time in its last 12 games.

Collin McHugh (3-3) suffered the loss for the Astros, allowing four runs on five hits over six innings. He walked one, hit a batter and struck out two.

Jose Altuve had a double and single for Houston, his first multi-hit game since April 19. Altuve also passed Bob Watson into sixth place on Houston's all-time hit list with his 1,449th career hit.

McHugh retired the first six batters he faced before the Twins sent eight batters to the plate in the third while taking a 3-0 lead. Mitch Garver opened the inning by getting hit by a pitch and then scored two pitches later on Schoop's fifth home run of the season, a 465-foot drive into the third deck in left-center. It was the fourth-longest Twins homer in the Statcast era and the longest since Miguel Sano's 469-footer in August 2017.

Byron Buxton followed Schoop's home run with a single, stole second, took third on a groundout by Max Kepler and scored on an infield single by Polanco.

Minnesota extended its lead to 4-0 in the fifth when Kepler doubled off the right field wall, took third on a groundout by Polanco and then scored on a ground single to right by Cruz that beat the Astros' shift.

The Twins made it 6-0 in the eighth with two runs off reliever Chris Devenski. Polanco opened the inning with a double, then scored on Cruz's double off the fence in left-center. Cruz, who advanced to third on a groundout by Eddie Rosario, then scored on a sacrifice fly by C.J. Cron.

The Astros broke up the shutout with two out in the ninth on back-to-back RBI singles by Aledmys Diaz and Tyler White off reliever Trevor Hildenberger.

--Field Level Media