MINNEAPOLIS — It was supposed to be an off-night for Christian Arroyo — or at least one where he played sparingly.
The 28-year-old was not in the original lineup submitted by Red Sox manager Alex Cora. But when anticipated shortstop Pablo Reyes had to be scratched because of right abdominal soreness roughly 45 minutes before the first pitch, Arroyo was thrust into the lineup at second base, with Kiké Hernández moving to short.
Though rushed, Arroyo proved ready for the moment. He collected a career-high five hits, going 5 for 5 in a 10-4 victory over the Twins that extended the Sox’ winning streak to six games and improved their record to 39-35, reaching four games over .500 for the first time since May 27.
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“I’m kind of speechless. I’ve never done that before,” said Arroyo. “Tonight was one of those nights where they all found holes. Every hitter dreams of that.”
The lopsided final score did not accurately reflect the game’s slow-building early tension. Starters Kutter Crawford and Bailey Ober stifled both lineups through three innings, before the Red Sox broke through with a show of strength in the fourth against Ober (4-4, 2.83), Minnesota’s 6-foot-9-inch pitcher.
With one out, Adam Duvall offered a reminder of his game-changing power, blasting a slider in the heart of the zone for a 426-foot homer that sailed well over the fence in dead center. The long ball was the fifth of the season for Duvall, and his first in 10 games since coming off the injured list after a left wrist fracture.
Two batters later, Arroyo — who’d singled in his first at-bat — amplified the rally. On a 2-and-2 pitch, he hunted a fastball at the top of the zone. He got one above it, but at 91 miles per hour, he was able to sledgehammer Ober’s offering for a line drive into the left field seats for a solo homer, Arroyo’s third long ball of the year.
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That 2-0 advantage proved sizable on a night when Crawford — compelled back into the rotation by injuries to Chris Sale and Tanner Houck — turned in his best start of 2023, evoking memories of a nearly two-month stretch last season when he was the Sox’ best starter.
Entering the game, the Sox had felt that Crawford had gotten away from some of his attacking strengths since his recent move from the bullpen (where he had a 1.66 ERA) to the rotation (7.31 ERA in three starts). He’d been too fine with his pitches, and perhaps too inclined to draw from all realms of a five-pitch mix.
“It’s good he can do that, but he can get in trouble trying to be too cute,” explained Cora. “It’s kind of like going to the buffet and you’ve got all this stuff. Don’t get too greedy because you’ve got all the tools. His four-seamer is a good one. It’s elite.”
Crawford leaned chiefly on his jumping fastball and biting cutter, but still drew broadly from his pitching smorgasbord. Still, on Tuesday, he made the perfect selection whenever the game temperature rose.
With two on and one out in the second inning, he unleashed a full-count cutter to Max Kepler that elicited a tapper just in front of the plate. Conner Wong sprung to the ball to initiate a rare, inning-ending, 2-6-3 double play, the only recorded instance of such a twin killing in available play-by-play data, which dates to 1988.
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Crawford again smothered a two-on, two-out rally by eliciting an inning-ending ground out in the third. Then, in his final inning, the righthander responded to a runner reaching third with one out by getting back-to-back strikeouts of Edouard Julien and Carlos Correa on 95-m.p.h. fastballs to conclude five scoreless innings in which he walked none and struck out five.
“I’m confident in my ability to be a starter and pitch every five days,” said Crawford (2-3, 3.74). “I want to be there [for Sale and Houck] and I’m sure everybody else in the rotation and on the pitching staff wants to, as well. We’re down a couple of guys so some guys need to step up, and I’m sure there’s a number of guys on this pitching staff that will.”
Following Crawford’s strong performance, the Sox blew the game open with a hail of hits from line to line. Opposite-field singles by Masataka Yoshida, Arroyo, and Wong in the sixth inning increased the Sox’ advantage to 3-0, and a five-run rally in the seventh ended any drama.
The Sox batted around in the inning, collecting five hits, most notable an RBI double to right by Justin Turner and a bases-loaded, three-run double by Arroyo. One inning later, Yoshida’s mammoth shot to right-center — a 447-foot blast for his eighth homer of the year and his first since May 31 — made it 10-0.
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“Perfect swing,” Cora said of Yoshida’s homer, which punctuated a 3-for-5 performance.
Arroyo, who’d never had more than three hits in a game, capped his night with a single up the middle against Twins position player-turned-pitcher Willi Castro in the ninth.
While the Twins rallied in the final two innings against Corey Kluber — blasting three homers off the beleaguered righthander, who has given up 17 long balls in 55 innings — the Sox cruised across the finish line. Despite allowing four runs, Kluber was credited with the first save of his career.
The Sox have scored 50 runs in their last six games, a span in which they’ve allowed just 18 runs. The six-game winning streak is their second longest of the season.
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @alexspeier.