CLEVELAND, Ohio - Will Brennan drove in both of the runs needed for the Cleveland Guardians to beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1, in Wednesday’s rainy series finale at Progressive Field.
Brennan’s RBI pair sandwiched an hour-long rain delay, with the first hit coming on a 2nd inning single off Twins starter Joe Ryan (10-9). After the break, Brennan tagged Ryan with a double in the bottom of the fourth inning to drive in Andres Giménez, who scored on both of Brennan’s hits.
“I just kind of tried to take some pressure off myself,” Brennan commented after the game. We have some really good vets in there that give some good advice.”
Gavin Williams (2-5) allowed one run in a five-inning start. The rookie totaled four strikeouts and yielded just one hit, despite walking four batters. Williams earned his second career win less than week after he was removed from a road start against the Twins with a tweaked leg.
“We had a plan the whole week, and we stuck with that,” said Williams. “Communication was key the whole week. I felt pretty good today.”
“Coming out of the chute, I thought he was pretty electric,” said manager Terry Francona. “He was stepping on it pretty good. Then, you could see, after the delay, when he came back out, it wasn’t quite the same. But he gave us two, and that got us far enough where we could manage the rest of the game. So, that was big.”
Andrew Stevenson drove in the Twins’ lone run with a 5th-inning single off Williams, who was also the benefactor of some stellar defensive plays by the Guardians, including an early Myles Straw diving catch:
Brennan also provided a play in the outfield with a sliding grab in the top of the 2nd:
Sam Hentges, Reynaldo Lopez, Nick Sandlin, and Emmanuel Close each pitched a scoreless inning in relief for Cleveland, with Close notching his league-leading 38th save of the season - as well as his 104th career save to tie Jose Mesa for fifth on the club's all-time saves list.
The Guardians victory reduced the Twins’ AL Central lead to six games, after Minnesota took the first two games of the mid-week series.
Cleveland will head to the West Coast for a week-long road trip, beginning on Thursday against the Los Angeles Angels (9:38 p.m. start).
Guardians now six games back of Twins in AL Central
