HOUSTON >> It’s a scene that’s become unfortunately all-too-familiar for the Twins, watching Royce Lewis race out of the box, healthy, but reach first base clearly in pain.

Near the end of a 10-3 blowout loss to the Houston Astros at Daikin Park that went awry early on Friday night, Lewis pulled up at first limping, due to what manager Rocco Baldelli called a “left hamstring strain of some kind.”

The good news, at least preliminarily, is that Lewis, upon a quick examination in the training room, “tested relatively well,” after the game, Baldelli said.

“We’re going to bring him in on (Saturday) and check him out, see how he comes in,” Baldelli said. “A lot of the time, you learn a lot just by how the guy shows up the next day, how he can move around, what he’s capable of doing. That will tell us a lot and we’ll be able to make a decision of some kind as far as the next step.”

But the bad news — what adds insult to literal injury — is that the strain came in the top of the ninth inning of a game that had long been non-competitive.

For much of the season, the Twins (36-32) have been propped up by the strength of their rotation, which was one of the best in the majors. And then came June.

A day after Bailey Ober gave up seven runs, and three days after Simeon Woods Richardson allowed seven of his own, Chris Paddack, who has been pitching well nearly all season, was ambushed by the Astros (38-30) for nine runs, eight earned.“You look at the line and it’s a tough one,” Paddack said. “Lot of crooked numbers, one strikeout. It’s a lot of hits and a lot of runs. But I told (pitching coach) Pete (Maki) in between innings, ‘Man, my stuff, I feel like my stuff is there tonight.’”

And that, Paddack said, makes it worse.

“Those are the ones that haunt you just because, man, what else could I have done?” Paddack said. “Versus, if your stuff is up in the zone and you don’t have that wipeout stuff, OK, those you’re like ‘I just got beat today.’”

Paddack allowed a single to the first batter he faced, a double to the second and from there, the Astros were off and running. Houston scored three runs in the first inning, all of which came with a pair of outs, two more in the second, another three in the third and one in the fourth.

When all was said and done, the starter slogged through four innings, giving up 12 hits. It marked the third time in four games that Twins pitchers had given up 10 or more runs and much of that damage has come off the starting staff.

The Twins’ rotation is already weathering the loss of Pablo López and Zebby Matthews to shoulder injuries that occurred within days of each other. Ober hasn’t looked like himself as he pitches with diminished velocity and works through some mechanical issues and now Paddack, Woods Richardson — who rejoined the rotation in place of Matthews — and David Festa — in for López — have had blow-up starts in the month.

“We know these outings are going to flare up throughout the long season that we have as ballplayers,” Paddack said. “We’ve got to get back on the horse and continue to do what we did at the beginning of the year. You look at May, we were one of the best pitching staffs in the big leagues. It’s not a fluke for us. We know what we’re capable of. Just got to get back on the horse and good things can happen.”

While the Astros were getting to Paddack, the Twins could muster little against rookie left-hander Colton Gordon in their first look at him. The Twins scored all of their runs on solo shots — one from Willi Castro, one from Lewis and one from Ty France — in the loss.

Their best opportunity to claw their way back into the game came in the third inning — already down by five — when they loaded the bases for shortstop Carlos Correa. But a groundout to third ended that threat and three more runs scored in the bottom of the inning, putting the game safely out of reach.

“Not being in the game after only a couple innings is tough,” Baldelli said. “We’ve had a lot of good stretches of baseball. We’re not in one of them at this exact moment.”