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Hunter Renfroe homered twice and had five RBIs as the host Boston Red Sox held off the Minnesota Twins 11-9 on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series.

Enrique Hernandez and Travis Shaw went deep, Alex Verdugo had three hits and bipetin.com the Red Sox won for the third time in their past four games.

Jorge Polanco homered and had three RBIs and Miguel Sano also drove in three for the Twins, who dropped their fourth straight.

The first of Renfroe's home runs was a towering three-run blast over the Green Monster in left field to put the Red Sox ahead 4-3 in the fourth.

Boston blew the game open with two outs in the fifth.

Rafael Devers plated the first of five runs with a ground-rule double.

Verdugo doubled home a pair before Renfroe's second blast made it 9-3.

Renfroe's 10 homers in August are a single-month career high. He has 21 RBIs in 20 games this month.

Minnesota scored a run in the sixth before a two-run Polanco homer in the seventh got the visitors within 9-6.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Hirokazu Sawamura appeared to escape the jam by striking out Nick Gordon, but the umpire correctly called a foul tip. Gordon then singled up the middle to get the Twins within one.

Hernandez put Boston up 11-8 in the eighth with a two-run shot to mark his 30th birthday.

Matt Barnes served up a leadoff homer to Josh Donaldson in the ninth and walked two before getting pulled.

Hansel Robles entered and fanned two on his way to his 11th save.

A Polanco single got the Twins on the board in the first before Shaw knotted the score with his blast in the third. Sano singled home a pair in the fourth for a 3-1 Minnesota edge.

Twins starter Griffin Jax (3-2) allowed nine runs on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings.

He walked four and Source Webpage struck out four.

Josh Taylor (1-0) retired the only batter he faced to earn the win for okffi-dev1.kapsi.fi Boston. Starter Tanner Houck surrendered three runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 innings, whiffing six and walking one.

Plate umpire Tom Hallion left after taking a foul tip off his mask in the first inning.

Phil Cuzzi took over behind the plate to begin the second.