Twins rally past Guardians behind Lee, Larnach home runs
CLEVELAND (Interstat) — Brooks Lee homered and drove in four runs, Trevor Larnach added a solo homer and the Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Guardians 10-6 on Wednesday night at Progressive Field.
The Twins snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 50-53, while the Guardians fell to 54-49. Minnesota had lost the first two games of the series, 5-2 on Tuesday and 13-4 on Monday.
Lee, who had been struggling at the plate in recent outings, went 2 for 5 with a three-run homer in the fourth inning that turned a 3-3 tie into a 7-3 Minnesota lead. Larnach finished 2 for 4 with his eighth homer of the season, a leadoff shot in the first inning. He also drove in two runs with a single in the eighth.
Kyle Manzardo led Cleveland with three hits, including a solo homer in the eighth, and drove in two runs. Brayan Rocchio had two hits and an RBI.
Travis Adams earned the win for Minnesota, tossing two scoreless innings of relief, allowing one hit and striking out one. He improved to 2-0. Slade Cecconi took the loss for Cleveland, allowing seven hits and three earned runs over 4 2/3 innings with five strikeouts. He fell to 4-7.
The game lasted 3 hours, 9 minutes before an announced crowd of 22,807.
Minnesota struck first when Larnach opened the game with a home run to right-center field. The lead lasted only until the bottom of the first, when Rocchio singled home Jose Ramirez to tie the game.
Cleveland took control in the second inning. Manzardo doubled and scored on a single by Patrick Bailey. Bailey later scored on a single by Ramirez to make it 3-1.
The Twins tied the game in the third. Alex Jackson doubled and scored on a single by Lee. Larnach then scored on a groundout by Josh Bell.
The game turned in the fourth. Jackson singled home Alan Roden to give Minnesota a 4-3 lead. Lee followed with a three-run homer to center, his 15th of the season, making it 7-3.
Cleveland answered in the bottom of the inning. Petey Halpin singled, moved to third on a single by Steven Kwan and scored on a forceout by Ramirez to cut the deficit to 7-4.
The Twins added three more runs in the eighth. Roden reached on an error, Luke Keaschall was hit by a pitch and Jackson walked. Larnach singled to drive in two. Bell then singled to score Jackson, making it 10-4.
Manzardo homered in the bottom of the eighth to make it 10-5. Rocchio scored on a single by Manzardo in the ninth for the final margin.
Minnesota outhit Cleveland 11-13. The Twins had 10 runs on 11 hits and left eight runners on base. Cleveland stranded nine.
Erik Sabrowski pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for Cleveland, allowing no hits and striking out one. Will Dion worked 1 1/3 innings, giving up three hits but no runs, with two strikeouts. Kody Funderburk tossed a scoreless inning for Minnesota with one strikeout. Franco Aleman pitched a scoreless inning for Cleveland.
The Twins used five pitchers total, while the Guardians used six.
Minnesota’s Lee had been 0 for 4 in the previous game and had just one hit in three of his last four contests. He broke out with the big homer Wednesday.
The victory evened the season series between the two teams at 4-4 with one game remaining in the four-game set Thursday.
Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Cleveland 6, Minnesota 5. Interstat’s ELO system gave Cleveland a 59.70 percent probability to win. Cleveland was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus-1.5. The total score of 16 went under the over-under line of 8.