Kepler hit a two-run homer off Danny Salazar in the first inning, and a two-run homer off Salazar in the third. Mike Napoli, who had homered in his previous five games, drew a walk before Santana blasted an 0-1 pitch over the left-field wall for a three-run home run. According to Elias, Twins OF Max Kepler on Monday became the first European-born player in history to hit three home runs in a major league game.
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Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana, Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez all homered for the Tribe, which now heads to NY for a 3-game weekend series with the Yankees.
Davis scored the first run all by himself, reaching on a base hit before stealing second and third and scoring on a wild pitch. Alex Gordon hit his eighth home run. “We’ve had a lot of conversations this year”, the manager said.
Cleveland Indians’ Francisco Lindor watches his two run home run off Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Michael Tonkin during the seventh inning of a baseball game Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, in Cleveland.
The left-hander gave up four runs over five innings in his first start with the team, allowing Cleveland to cruise to a 9-2 victory over Minnesota on Thursday. Lonnie Chisenhall laid out to make a phenomenal catch, but it was ruled a “no catch” on the field.
For the second time in as many nights, the Twins hammered the Indians’ starting pitcher.
“All right”, Mauer said after the Twins’ 13-5 win over the Cleveland Indians.
The AL Central-leading Indians were outscored 35-16 by the last-place Twins in the first three games. Danny Salazar, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer, the starters in the first three games of the series, combined for a 22.68 ERA in those three outings, allowing 21 earned runs and 23 hits in 8 1/3 innings.
How outlandish has the Twins’ offensive output been in this series so far?
They have been retired in order just four times, three of those coming Wednesday.
The Indians used home runs to take a 4-0 lead through three innings.
Kepler, born in Germany, hit a trio of two-run homers with six RBIs in Monday’s 12-5 win. “You can pick guys the last three nights. Max has been unbelievable, Dozier, (Jorge) Polanco … really up and down the lineup”.
The Twins continued their series-long aggressiveness on 0-2 pitches.
Cleveland’s frustration bubbled over in Wednesday’s game as Francona, pitching coach Mickey Callaway and pitcher Corey Kluber, who did not appear in the game, were all ejected in two separate incidents. Santana also had three hits.
“It was back-to-back bad games for us, but you know what?” “That’s all we try to do”.
“It was a pretty good game for six innings, and I thought we were right in it until things fell apart”, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “It can come back to hurt you when you get ahead of a hitter like that and you can’t put them away or use the count in your favor”. On Wednesday, the Twins clobbered the Indians again 13-5. In 17 starts at Columbus, Clevinger is 11-1.
With one more game left Thursday afternoon, Indians starters have a 22.69 earned-run average in this series. No wonder they had slipped behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL’s best rotation ERA.
Twins 3B Miguel Sano went 1 for 2, but is in a 4 for 28 slump (.143) and batting just.239 in his second season.
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Neither Milone nor Duffey have been that great this season but with the acquisition of Santiago who had been red hot with a 6-0 in July, the Minnesota Twins should start looking at different internal options to spell Milone or Duffey for a bit.
