The Twins were in a festive mood on Friday night. They honored Rod Carew by showing heart after being down 3-0 just two innings into the game. They also honored his offensive pedigree by pounding out 17 hits. The offense also provided some in-game fireworks prior to the customary postgame ones that happen every Friday at Target Field.

What it all added up to was 10 unanswered runs — including seven over the final three innings — in a 10-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Target Field on Friday night. The Twins have beaten the Diamondbacks three straight times dating back to 2014 — some of the last games current Arizona bench coach Ron Gardenhire managed in Minnesota — and did so despite digging an early hole.

“It was an extremely, extremely fun baseball game,” manager Paul Molitor said. “Ervin had a little rough start there, and you could tell the frustration (he was feeling). I’m not sure what his highest average velocity is for a single game, but he ramped it up there after the first couple innings. He settled in there and did a nice job for us and gave us an opportunity to come back.”

Front and center for the Twins in the win was Byron Buxton, who came up a single shy of hitting for the cycle, and was denied that chance in the seventh inning when his line drive went right into the teeth of the Diamondbacks defensive shift, and was snared by second baseman Daniel Descalso. Buxton was also just two hitters away when Eddie Rosario made the final out of the eighth inning, leaving Buxton to settle for his fifth three-hit game of the season.

One of those hits was undoubtedly the most exciting of the game, and it brought the Twins back to even at three runs apiece. Just two innings after tripling into the left-center gap, Buxton again terrorized his center field counterpart A.J. Pollock by driving the ball deep to the other gap against Diamondbacks starter Zack Godley, who came into the game with an ERA below 3.00. Pollock, who wasn’t going to be playing the field in the original lineup until J.D. Martinez was scratched with an illness, overran the carom off the wall in right-center, and that was all Buxton needed to motor around for the second inside-the-park home run of his career.

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