Somewhat lost in the four hits, one walk and two errors of the Twins’ six-run fourth inning on Saturday was the fact that the deciding volley in a 6-1 victory over Houston started and ended with players taking extra bases. After being hit on the left hand by a pitch from Spencer Arrighetti to star t the inning, Byron Buxton stole second and scored on a fielding error by Jose Altuve to tie the game, 1-1. With two out and the bases empty later in the inning, Christian Vazquez sent a line drive into the left field gap and, determined to take advantage of Altuve’s arm, quickly decided it was a double. He scored on Matt Wallner’s double to make it 6-1. “I’m fast (and) I know Altuve has not a good arm, and I was trying to go to second base,” explained Vazquez, a former teammate. “I had it.” Vazquez immediately popped up and declared himself safe, a call upheld by second base umpire John Tumpane. “Bottom of the order, if we can do that for the big boys at the top of the order, that’s huge for us,” said Vazquez, the veteran catcher who batted ninth. Wallner was the leadoff hitter. “It was fun.” Buxton’s previous at-bat changed narratives quickly. After being hit on the left hand by a 96.2 mph four-seam fastball, he was quickly followed to first base by Baldelli and head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta. He convinced them he was OK, then quickly stole second, reaching the bag with the same hand. “We saw that and it was like, ‘OK, let’s go. We’ve gotta get going,’ ” said third baseman Jose Miranda, who cleared the bases later in the inning with a three-run home run off Arrighetti. Buxton, known as the Buck Truck for being able to carry the team at certain junctures of a game, said he takes pride in making plays that inspire his teammates. “A lot of pride,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m the Energizer Bunny, but when it starts, it kind of comes in bunches. So, I think that goes for whoever would have started that, you know? It’s always fun to be able to start that inning, and I ended the inning too.” That was a strikeout against Tayler Scott, but by then, the Twins had landed the fatal blow. Big outs for Alcala The Twins started the season believing they have one of baseball’s best bullpens, and through eight games that’s been the case. After five relievers each threw a scoreless on Saturday, the bullpen is 2-1 with a 2.25 earned-run average (sixth in MLB) in 32 innings (seventh). They’re fifth in runs-against (eight) and tied for ninth with 10 walks. The job, right-hander Louis Varland said, “Is to strikeouts, limit runs, limit walks.” Varland, Cole Sands, Jorge Alcala, Justin Topa and Jhoan Duran all pitched scoreless innings on Saturday. Alcala, a big right-hander with a power arm, worked out of trouble after loading the bases with one out on double, single and hit by pitch. After a pair of visits by pitching coach Pete Maki, Alcalde got out of the jam by striking out Yordan Alvarez looking and getting Christian Walker to fly out. “He bared down and did really well,” Varland said. “Showed some guts out there. You love to see it.” Briefly Starter Ober lowered his ERA from 27.00 to 12.50 by giving up one run, a homer by Jose Altuve, in four innings … Right-hander Chris Paddack (0-1, 24.40 ERA) is scheduled to pitch Sunday against Astros starter Ronel Blanco (0-1, 5:40). ...read more read less