2 weeks Ago
A trio of big two-out hits and a six-man pitching effort lifted the Minnesota Twins to a 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night. The win marked Minnesota’s first win of the year in Cleveland and only third against the Guardians in 11 tries this season. It’s also the Twins’ fourth win in their past seven games.
A day after the Twins failed to build on an early lead and let a winnable game slip away late, the club didn’t make the same mistakes again. Follow us on Facebook Matt Wallner put the Twins on the board first with a two-out, RBI single in the third. Then, after the Guardians tied the game on a solo homer in the fourth, Wallner did it again in the fifth to put the Twins back on top, 2-1.
Finally, Willi Castro added some cushion with a two-out, two-run shot to right, his 12th homer of the year. That was enough for the Twins on Tuesday, although it got rocky late. One again, the Twins didn’t get five innings from their rookie starter — Sept.
6 was the last time one of their three rookie starting pitchers went five innings — but the six-man combination of Zebby Matthews, Cole Irvin, Cole Sands, Ronny Henriquez, Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax got the job done. Matthews did make it 4.2 innings, giving up just five hits and a run while striking out five.
Irvin, making his Twins debut a day after being claimed off waivers, got the final out of the fifth. Up until the ninth inning, over 3.1 innings, Minnesota’s bullpen allowed just one baserunner, but as mentioned, things got rocky late.
Related: Twins option reliever Jorge Alcala to Triple-A, activate newly acquired Irvin After pitching a clean eighth, Duran came back for a second inning of work for only the second time all season. He got one out but also allowed a hit and a walk while running his pitch count to 30, the highest in any of his outings this season. With the potential tying run coming to the plate, the Twins turned to Jax.
He struck out his first batter and induced a slow chopper to short, but the grounder ricocheted off Brooks Lee's glove, loading the bases. Fortunately, on his next pitch, Jax got another grounder to end the game. The win keeps Minnesota's lead for the third and final AL wild card spot at least over one game, pending the outcome of the late Tigers and Mariners games.
The Twins and Guardians will be back at it on Wednesday night with Bailey Ober (12-7, 3.90 ERA) set to face Tanner Bibee (11-8, 3.60 ERA).
First pitch is set for 5:40 p.m. David Richard-Imagn Images.
