The #MNTwins snapped their 4-game losing streak last night with a nice 4-1 win and now have Jose Berrios on the mound to even the series and increase the lead in the Central Division.
The @Indians counter with rookie RHP Aaron Civale who has an ERA & a WHIP of 0.75 going into the game, the 3rd start of his young career.
The game started with the Indians getting a home run off the bat of OF Greg Allen and an RBI-double from Yasiel Puig that scored Carlos Santana, who walked so it was not a good first inning for Twins starter Jose Berrios but…he got better, allowing just 4 hits, 1 walk and 1 run while striking out 3 in the next 5 innings.
The @Twins got a run back in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Luis Arraez, who just keeps hitting and hitting in big situations, hit a sacrifice fly to score Eddie Rosario from 3rd base. Eddie doubled (17) to lead off the inning and then advanced to 3rd on a flyout from Mitch Garver.
The Indians got that run back in the top of the 3rd when Carlos Santana singled in Francisco Lindor, who led off with a double (27) of his own.
The Twins had only 4 hits in the 3rd through the 8th inning as Civale & allowed just 4 hits through the 6th and relievers RHP Nick Goody, LHP Oliver Perez & RHP Adam Cimber allowed just one hit & one walk while striking out 2 in their 2 innings so the Twins would have to try to get something going against Cleveland closer LHP Brad Hand in the bottom of the 9th.
Right-handed Twins relievers Tyler Duffey, Ryne Harper & Trevor May pitched 3 hitless & scoreless innings (just one walk allowed) to get the Twins into a position to come back in the 9th inning.
The bottom of the 9th started with another Eddie Rosario double (18), on the first pitch. Mitch Garver struck out and Luis Arraez came to the plate. He came through in the clutch again, also hitting the first pitch he saw, singling to right field to score Rosie and get the Twins within one.
C.J. Cron then battled through a 10-pitch at-bat to finally single. Arraez advanced to 2nd and Ehire Adrianza came in to pinch-run for Cron at 1st base.
That brought up Marwin Gonzalez. After going down 0-2, he fouled off 2 inside sliders before getting a fastball up in the zone that he liked and he lined it off the left field wall. Arraez scored from 2nd to tie the game and Ehire Adrianza was on his horse and being sent home by 3rd base coach Tony Diaz.
Cleveland left fielder Tyler Naquin bare-handed the ball off the wall and threw a perfect relay to Francisco Lindor who turned and threw a perfect throw home to gun Adrianza down at home. 2 outs but the game was tied. Schoop grounded out to 3rd to end the inning and send the game into extra innings.
Rocco brought LHP Taylor Rogers in to pitch the 10th and C Kevin Plawecki singled on a just-want-to-make-contact swing for a single down the first baseline. He was then replaced on the bases by OF Oscar Mercado. Francisco Lindor then walked on 4 pitches. Greg Allen was up looking to bunt the runners over and he bunted past a lunging Taylor Rogers for a bunt single that loaded the bases. Carlos Santana then hit a Grand Slam to put the Indians up 7-3 and that was it.
The Twins grounded out 3 times in the bottom of the 10th to end the game and the American League Central is once again tied at the top between these two teams.
There are a lot of people who were criticizing Twins 3B Coach Tony Diaz for sending Adrianza on the Gonzalez double. Watch the highlight. It took a bare-handed play in left field and 2 perfect throws to nab him at home. If either throw is off just a little, Adrianza is probably safe.
You may not get another chance to score the winning run so I don’t blame Tony Diaz for sending him home!
The Twins once again were in a position to win the game. That probably doesn’t mean much right now because they lost but they were right there with a chance and they got that chance with some great at-bats. The hottest team in baseball is getting the breaks and the Twins are not.
That doesn’t mean the Twins can’t get hot in the next 43 games.
They have tomorrow off before a 2-game series in Milwaukee vs the Brewers then they’ll head to Texas for 4 against the Rangers and come home for 3 against the White Sox & the Tigers.
26 of the remaining 43 games are against Detroit, Chicago & Kansas City and that doesn’t include the 6 games left against these Cleveland Indians (3 here, 3 there) so LET’S GO, TWINS!!!
The stretch run starts on Tuesday in Milwaukee!
