Kepler is the fourth player to hit four home runs in a two-game span since the Twins moved to Minnesota in 1961.
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Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Danny Salazar delivers against the Minnesota Twins during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, in Cleveland.
“They’re outplaying us. It’s that simple”, shortstop Francisco Lindor said.
In his last start, Monday against Minnesota, Salazar gave up six runs in two innings. Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco (7-5) gave up eight runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings. Besides the home runs, the Twins punished Carrasco with two doubles from Joe Mauer, another by Jorge Polanco and Danny Santana, and a long blast off the center-field wall by Miguel Sano that drove home two and ended Carrasco’s night.
Eduardo Escobar hit a two-run homer for Minnesota in the ninth. The Twins won 10-6.
One of the Indians’ biggest problems in this series has been their inability to control Twins rookie Max Kepler.
Andrew Romine and Cameron Maybin tripled in a six-run fifth inning for the Tigers.
When the fourth-year right-hander notched three more outs around a two-out single in the seventh, order had been restored and the Twins were on their way to a 10-6 win on Tuesday night.
“That’s kind of what we want to do, right?”
“I made mistakes on pitches”, Carrasco said. The Twins also scored four times in the fourth against Carlos Carrasco (7-5). He is 1-4 with a 5.01 ERA in 55 2/3 innings against the Twins.
Minnesota led 8-0 after four innings, and Cleveland rallied for a six-run fifth inning, but that was as close as the Indians could get. Michael Tonkin came on to walk rookie Tyler Naquin, but he struck out Abraham Almonte to end the horror show after 11 batters.
This time Pressly went right after Napoli, who took him deep on July 15 at home in the first game after the all-star break.
“There’s something in my elbow”, Salazar said Monday night.
Gibson was removed from the game and an 8-0 Twins lead was down to 8-6. “That turned out to be the case”.
Leading 8-6, the Twins added insurance in the ninth inning on a two-run home run by Escobar off Austin Adams.
Meanwhile, Gibson held the Indians scoreless on three hits through the first four innings and then the roof caved in on him in the fifth when he gave up six runs with two runs. He landed on the disabled list with a lower back problem a few days later.
Twins starter Kyle Gibson, with an eight-run cushion, needed only to get through the fifth inning to qualify for the win, but couldn’t do it. Minnesota has claimed the first two games of the set, with game three scheduled for tonight at 6:10 P-M in Ohio.
“If you’re going to miss pitches, they’re going to hit you, no matter who we play – the Twins, Chicago, Detroit”.
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It was one of the more prodigious home runs hit at Progressive Field in recent memory, and it happened to be Napoli’s second-best attempt at reaching the scoreboard this season.
