BOSTON — If there was ever a day that the Twins needed a long, strong start from Pablo López, it was Sunday, in the first game of a doubleheader while locked into a tight wild card race.

Triston Casas had other plans.

The Red Sox first baseman played spoiler in the first game of the doubleheader, hitting three home runs and driving in seven runs in an 8-1 win over the Twins on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.

After the Twins stranding the bases loaded in the top of the first, Casas got to López in the bottom of the prolonged inning, taking a first-pitch fastball to López out to right-center field. It was the first of two three-run home runs for him on the day.

Casas doubled the Red Sox lead in the third inning, hitting yet another home run in the, this one an opposite-field blast off López that landed in the seats just over the Green Monster.

The Red Sox scored one more run off López in his four-inning effort. The seven runs given up matched López’s season high. It also matched the number of earned runs he had given up in his previous seven starts combined as López has been particularly dominant in the second half of the season.

López’s departure did not mark the end of Casas’s big day. The first baseman added a home run off recently-called up Brent Headrick in the fifth inning.

The Twins scored just one run in the loss with Willi Castro coming around to score on a fielding error by third baseman Romy Gonzalez in the fourth inning after the game felt well out of reach.

The loss dropped the Twins into a tie with the Detroit Tigers and a full game behind the Kansas City Royals in the wild card standings. Both teams were in action on Sunday.

The second game of Sunday’s doubleheader will begin at 4:35 p.m. CT.

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