Indians swept by Twins, lose sixth straight
BY ANDREW GUARINO
INDIANS BEAT WRITER
The Minnesota Twins defeated the Cleveland Indians by a final score of 7-5 Sunday afternoon from Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This completed the sweep of the series for the Twins and marked the sixth straight loss for Cleveland.
The Indians struck first for the first time in the series on Sunday afternoon. Francisco Lindor was the leadoff batter and started the game with a single; this was followed by another single by Cesar Hernandez. Two batters later, Carlos Santana singled to score Lindor and give the Indians a 1-0 lead. In the top of the third, the first inning duplicated itself. Francisco Lindor and Cesar Hernandez singled to get the inning going and then Carlos Santana got a single to score Lindor and make it 2-0 Indians. Franmil Reyes followed Santana's single with a sac fly to score Hernandez, to extend Cleveland's lead to 3-0. Triston McKenzie walked LaMonte Wade to start the home half of the third before allowing a two-run home run to Marwin Gonzalez to make it a 3-2 game.
In the bottom half of the fourth the Twins tied the game on a solo home run from Nelson Cruz, his 16th long ball of the year. He is now tied for first in Major League Baseball with the Angels' Mike Trout and the Yankees' Luke Voit. The long ball continued to hurt McKenzie in the fifth inning. He gave up another two-run home run, this time to Ryan Jeffers, which made it a 5-3 game. This ended Triston McKenzie's day. Cal Quantrill came in to replace him and the second batter of the day he faced was Josh Donaldson, who took him deep to center field to give the Twins a 6-3 lead. Cleveland got a run back in the sixth on a sac fly from Francisco Lindor which scored Josh Naylor. The Twins answered right back in the home half of the sixth with a sac fly from Marwin Gonzalez to score Nelson Cruz, making it 7-4.
In the top of the eighth the Indians made it a two-run game as Sandy Leon singled to score Tyler Naquin.
After their sixth straight loss, the Indians are now in third place in the AL Central, 4.5 games behind the Chicago White Sox for first place in the Division. The good news is that with the playoffs happening the way they are this year, the Indians remain in the playoffs.
Next up for Cleveland is a two game series with the Chicago Cubs from Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. First pitch of game one is Tuesday evening at 8:10pm Eastern. The Indians are expected to send Carlos Carrasco to the hill; he is 2-4 with a 3.12 ERA. The Cubs probable starter is Yu Darvish, who is having an outstanding year, 7-2 with a 1.77 ERA.
POSTED 09/13/2020 19:25