HOUSTON -- For all his maddening inconsistency and recent inability to turn in quality starts, one thing Mike Pelfrey had usually been able to do was keep the ball in the yard.
That changed Friday night at cozy Minute Maid Park with two swings of the bat in the Twins' 8-0 loss to the Houston Astros.
First, Colby Rasmus connected in the second inning for a two-run homer into the second deck off the Twins right-hander. That ended a stretch of 191 batters faced without allowing a home run.
Two innings later, with Pelfrey (6-9) on the verge of wriggling out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam, Astros catcher Hank Conger slashed a 2-0 sinker the other way into the Crawford Boxes for a grand slam.