The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins 8-2 on Tuesday night at Target Field.
The Twins have now lost 9 of their last 12 games, and like so many of the other losses, the Twins pitching staff faltered once again.
Yohan Pino started, he gave up four runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings, he was tagged with the loss. After Brian Duensing relieved Pino with 1 2/3 innings of perfect relief, right-hander Matt Guerrier got shelled in the ninth inning.
Guerrier gives up four runs in the ninth and the Twins trail 8-2. Sees his ERA go from 2.67 to 3.86.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) July 23, 2014
Cleveland took an early lead with a three-run second inning and it stayed that way until Sam Fuld drove in Oswaldo Arcia on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth.
Cleveland answered right back, in the fifth, as Carlos Santana blasted a home run to right field off of Pino. Santana finished 4-for-5 with a home run and a pair of doubles in the game.
The Twins cut the lead back to two in the seventh thanks to Brian Dozier’s 19th home run of the season. Dozier was named the Twins Heart and Hustle Award Winner, earlier Tuesday.
He broke out of an 0-for-14 slump by going 3-for-5 with the homer and a double.
Outside of Dozier, the Twins struggled to get the timely hit.
Ballgame. #Indians 8, #MNTwins 2. Twins go 0-for-8 with RISP, leave 9 men on base. Pino allows 4 runs in 6.1 innings.
— Tyler Mason (@tylermason21) July 23, 2014
The Twins and Cleveland will finish their series tomorrow afternoon at Target Field.
Anthony Swarzak will start for the Twins in the game. Kyle Gibson has been scratched with back stiffness.
