The Twins’ lineup lost two of its long-time regulars Tuesday when catcher Ryan Jeffers was placed on the injured list with a broken bone in his hand, and Royce Lewis was optioned to Triple-A St. Paul after a difficult start to the season.

The moves meant there are more at-bats to go around, opening up opportunities for a number of players. On Wednesday, a pair of them took advantage.

Victor Caratini and Ryan Kreidler provided the punch for the Twins in their 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday afternoon at Target Field, each hitting a home run in support of Joe Ryan’s strong outing.

“Whether it’s 26 guys, 28, 29 or however many we’ve used, we have to use our whole roster,” manager Derek Shelton said. “It’s really nice to see that the guys that are filling in and playing (Wednesday) were contributing. ... That’s a team win.”

Caratini, who will get the bulk of the opportunities behind the plate with Jeffers sidelined, hit a game-tying home run in the second inning, his second blast of the season. It was part of a two-hit day for him, the second coming with a pair of outs in the fourth inning and sparking the offense for the Twins (23-27).

Third baseman Tristan Gray followed him, drawing a walk on a pitch clock violation before Kreidler drilled a Mike Burrows fastball over the fence to left-center field, giving the Twins their 4-1 advantage.

That would be more than enough on a day when Ryan turned in his third consecutive start in which he gave up one run over six innings.

“I was really pleased in the fifth and sixth, he was able to settle it back down,” Shelton said. “As well as he was pitching in the sixth, it was really tempting to send him back out for the seventh.”

Ryan ran into some trouble in the second inning, allowing three singles, the third of which came from former Twins catcher Christian Vázquez and gave the Astros a 1-0 lead. After the inning, the two had some friendly words, which Ryan said with a laugh that he probably couldn’t repeat.

But the Astros (20-31) could do little else against Ryan. He did not allow a hit after the second and went on to strike out nine — three apiece in both the second and fourth innings.

“I just kept attacking and didn’t care if they got a hit or not. But they didn’t, so it was good,” Ryan said.

Reliever Yoendrys Gómez added five punchouts of his own in an impressive two-inning outing, fanning all three batters he faced in the seventh and working around a leadoff single in the eighth before striking out another pair of hitters.

In the ninth, rookie Andrew Morris came in for his first major league save, becoming the ninth reliever to record a save for the Twins in 50 games this season.

“I was trying to tell myself that’s what I’ve been working towards,” Morris said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to work towards. I want to be the guy in those spots. I think I can be really good at it. I appreciate the trust and the experience that I’ve been building.”