MINNEAPOLIS -- Eduardo Escobar and Chris Gimenez provided the Minnesota Twins with a big advantage before much of Thursday's attendance had reached the seats. Young starter Jose Berrios handled the Seattle Mariners from there.

Gimenez hit two home runs, and Berrios continued his strong sophomore season for Minnesota with a career-high eight innings pitched in Thursday's 6-2 win against Seattle.

Gimenez drove in four runs, while Eduardo Escobar had three hits, including a homer, as Minnesota split the four-game series and remained two games ahead of Cleveland in the American League Central before the two teams start a four-game weekend series on Friday.

"Anytime you can get one, in my situation, is a good thing," Gimenez said of his first multi-homer game in the majors. "To be able to get two was cool. Fortunately, I've done it before in the minor leagues, just never in the big leagues. I feel like I've never got enough at-bats to kind of get on a roll and do that. But, hey, we'll take them when they come."

Berrios (6-1) won his third straight decision, giving up two runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out six.

Seattle starter Ariel Miranda (6-3) yielded six runs on a career-high 10 hits in four innings. The Mariners had won 12 of their previous 17 games, including four of six against the Twins.

"Today, his velocity, he didn't have it," Miranda explained through an interpreter. "His command was not there."

In his second season, Berrios is matching the hype surrounding him as the team's top pitching prospect of the past few years. He has gone at least five innings in each of his seven starts this season and has allowed more than three runs just once.

"I'm more comfortable," Berrios said through an interpreter of his success with runners on base. "Last year, I was thinking I had runs on bases that I have to try to get this guy out somehow or someway. I used to focus on how I'm going to get out of it. Now it's more about making sure I do what I'm supposed to do and get the hitter out."

Berrios retired the first eight batters he faced. He got out of the sixth inning with just one run allowed with a double play. Kyle Seager doubled to lead off the seventh, but Berrios got a strikeout of Danny Valencia and two flyouts to strand Seager.

"We knew going in that Berrios had very good stuff, electric fastball, good breaking ball," Seattle manager Scott Servais said. "We had chances to kind of get close but could never mount the big rally against him. ... We didn't swing the bats very well."

Minnesota scored five runs in the first inning. Escobar hit a two-run homer and Gimenez added a three-run shot to account for the scoring.

"It's a big gap between two and five," Twins manager Paul Molitor said of Gimenez's homer. "Even the next one, I thought, was big as far as momentum because they come back and put another number on the board. For him to answer with another, I thought both of them were fairly critical to how the game progressed."

Gimenez hit a solo homer, his third of the season, off Miranda leading off the third.

Escobar has hit .581 (18-for-31) with three homers and eight RBIs in his last eight games.

NOTES: Seattle SS Jean Segura is nearing a return from a right high ankle sprain. Segura has been running and hitting the past few days in Minnesota, and he will have a full workout before Friday's game in Texas. Manager Scott Servais said he could play in rehab games if the workout goes well, with the intention of returning for the homestand beginning Monday. ... Mariners RHP Hisashi Iwakuma pitched four scoreless innings in his first rehab start on Wednesday at Class A Modesto as he makes his way back from inflammation in his right shoulder. Iwakuma is scheduled for another rehab start next week with Triple-A Tacoma and could make his return afterward. ... Minnesota announced LHP Adam Wilk will be recalled from Triple-A Rochester to start one game of Saturday's doubleheader with Cleveland. LHP Adalberto Mejia will start the other game. Wilk is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in three games this season, including two relief appearances for the Twins.