The Cleveland Indians look to clinch their second series victory over the Minnesota Twins in less than two weeks when they host their American League Central rivals for the middle contest of their three-game set Saturday.
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The loss was another missed chance for Carrasco, who has pitched at least seven innings in each of his past four starts with an ERA of 1.36. At this point, the Twins’ only hope is the Wild Card, which they now sit three games back of for the second spot.
“I’m just trying to get outs”. “We just gotta keep fighting”. The Twins responded in the bottom of the inning with a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead. Cleveland is 5-2 in their last seven games, 7-3 in their last 10 games as a road favorite, and 4-1 in Carrasco’s last five starts.
Tommy Milone was back on the mound; it was his first start since July 31, after spending 15 days on the disabled list with an elbow strain, the Associated Press reports.
In fairness, there was a little residual win streak magic still in the air for the series opener on Friday night, as Corey Kluber picked up where he left off the previous Sunday, baffling Minnesota en route to a one-hitter and a second straight complete game victory. Meanwhile, the Twins’ Tyler Duffey – making the second start of his big league career – took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, mercifully broken up by a Lindor double. But the Indians have provided the righty with just six runs of support during the dominant run. The only true hiccup came in the fourth when Kluber’s arch enemy Joe Mauer (apparently a holder of some Klubot kryptonite) smoked an elevated off-speed pitch to deep right center for a solo home run. “There are some things we need to see out of him down there”. “We come back tomorrow and win”.
Duffey allowed one hit in six innings and the Twins got home runs from Eddie Rosario, Chris Herrmann and Brian Dozier. The nine triples are the most by a rookie since Alcides Escobar and Austin Jackson both hit 10 in 2010.
“It was a really solid performance”, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. Molitor said after the game that Duffey will pitch Thursday in Baltimore. The next step in Lindor’s development is more consistency and focus on routine defensive plays. “He has the ability to be more”.
“I don’t think I embarrassed myself too bad”, Duffey said of his dancing.
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The Twins now depart for New York, where they open a 10-game tour of three AL East cities Monday night. The Yankees will counter with C.C. Sabathia (4-9, 5.23), who hasn’t pitched more than six innings in a game since June 29. In three starts against the Twins this year, Kluber is 2-0 with four runs allowed across 26 innings.
