CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The late inning magic we’d seen early in the season returned Tuesday afternoon for the Guardians.
Amed Rosario singled three times, including a two-run single in the bottom of the eighth, to help Cleveland end a five-game losing streak and beat the Twins 3-2 in Game 1 of a day-night doubleheader.
“We hung on, but we won,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said.
Guardians’ starter Zach Plesac threw six shutout innings in which he allowed just three hits, struck out seven and walked three but he did not factor in the decision.
“[I] Just continue to try and do my job,” Plesac said. “My job is to go out there and put up zeros for as many innings as I can throughout the course of the game and just continue to keep us in the game.”
Twins starter Devin Smeltzer was equal to the task, also throwing six innings. He allowed six hits and striking out nine.
Smeltzer’s lone blemish came in the first inning that saw the Guardians get a gift with two outs.
Franmil Reyes hit a shallow fly ball down the right field line that dropped in front of Twins right fielder Max Kepler allowing Rosario, who singled, to score from first. Reyes hustled for a double.
“That intensity comes from my enjoyment of the game,” Rosario said through an interpreter of his hustle. “That’s the way I enjoy the game. That’s how I was taught to play the game, by doing those [little things].”
It remained a 1-0 game until the top of the seventh when Jose Miranda doubled with two outs and Gilberto Celestino tripled off Guardians reliever Eli Morgan to score Miranda.
Twins shortstop Carlos Correa gave the Twins the lead, 2-1, with a solo homer to left off of reliever Sam Hentges to begin the top of the eighth.
Hentges picked up the win in relief and Emmanuel Clase his 18th save despite an eventful ninth inning.
Clase struck out Nick Gordon to lead off the inning, but Gordon reached on a wild pitch. After he was erased by a double play, first baseman Owen Miller booted a grounder that would’ve ended the game before Clase slammed the door.
Myles Straw and Steven Kwan lead off the bottom of the eighth with walks by Twins reliever Emilio Pagan and both runners moved up on a wild pitch before Rosario’s go-ahead single.
“When he’s staying up the middle and hitting the ball to right field, he gets really dangerous,” Francona said of Rosario. “That’s why when it wasn’t going well early on, we stayed with him because you know that’s in there. We said the same thing last year. Once he got hot, he kinda stayed hot. He’s such a good baserunner, it’s a big part of what we do offensively.”
After Jose Ramirez struck out, Rosario was caught stealing and thrown out at second base with Reyes at the plate.
With the win the Guardians pulled back within two games of the division leaders before the night cap.
