The Major League Baseball playoffs were held on the 7th in the American League district series, and the Twins, to which pitcher Kenta Maeda belongs, lost their first game against the Astros, 4-6.
Maeda pitched in relief, but threw two innings and gave up two runs.
The district series will be played in a five-game format, with the first team to win three games advancing to the league championship series.
In the American League, Maeda's Twins, who won the Central Division, defeated the Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series to advance to the District Series.
The regional series against last year's World Champion and this season's West Division champions Astros began on the 5th, with the first game being played in Houston.
In this game, Maeda took the mound as the second man in the fourth inning with a 3-7 lead, and after being hit by the first batter, he pinch-hit for second base and third base with two outs and a foreball and a wild pitch.
The next batter here was Altuve, who hit a leadoff home run in the first inning of the game, but Maeda struck out a short pitch with a low changeup to keep the game scoreless.
However, in the fifth inning, after a hit and a foreball put runners on base, he had two timely hits to extend the Astros' 1-3 lead.
Maeda didn't take the mound in the sixth inning, and in his first playoff start of the season, he threw two innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two foreballs.
The Twins closed the gap to one run with two home runs in the seventh inning, but they scored an extra run and dropped Game 0 to 4-2.
In the other game of the American League district series, the Rangers defeated the Orioles, who won the Eastern Division for the first time in nine years, 2-1.
Orioles pitcher Shintaro Fujinami, who has been with the Orioles since the middle of the season, is not on the 5-man roster for the district series.