The Minnesota Twins continued their free fall in the American League Central on Saturday night as they lost for the eighth time in the past 10 games with a 6-4 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
For the second straight night, Cleveland jumped ahead in the first inning with a two-run homer by Amed Rosario. It was the beginning of the end for Chris Archer, who was pulled after two innings with a pectoral injury and marked the beginning of a long night for the Twins’ bullpen.
Cole Sands relieved Archer in the third inning and immediately gave up two more runs to make it a 4-0 game. Jose Ramirez added another run with an RBI single in the fifth inning and scored on a fielder’s choice in the seventh to make it a 6-0.
Meanwhile, Triston McKenzie shut down the Twins at the plate. The right-hander tossed seven shutout innings, striking out five batters before turning it over to the Guardians’ bullpen.
The Twins rallied in the ninth using an RBI single from Gary Sanchez, an RBI double from Jake Cave and an RBI single from Luis Arraez to make it a 6-3 game. After All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase came into the game, a throwing error from Ramirez allowed Arraez to score from first and make it 6-4.
With runners on the corners and two outs, Clase got Max Kepler to ground out to third and drop the Twins further in the standings.
Now 3.5 games back of the Guardians for first place in the AL Central, the Twins will look to make up ground when they face Shane Bieber in Sunday’s series finale.
