CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Minnesota Twins took until the top of the eighth inning on Tuesday night to drop another multi-run bomb on the Cleveland Guardians.
The Twins tagged reliever Trevor Stephan (6-6) for five runs in the penultimate frame to cap a 8-3 win over Cleveland.
Minnesota began its game-busting run with a Jorge Polanco sacrifice fly that gave the Twins a 4-3 lead in the 8th. Stephen would later throw a bases-loaded wild pitch that allowed Willi Castro to score from third, before a Carlos Correa hit-by-pitch re-loaded the bases.
Donovan Solano hit a bases-clearing triple that skipped past center fielder Myles Straw.
Guardians manager Terry Francona defended Straw’s fielding decision: “Myles has got to try and catch it like he did, because it’s do-or-die, and he got caught in-between.”
Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 1st-inning lead against Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee (5.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ERs, 5 BBs, 4 Ks) on a Max Kepler RBI double and a run-scoring single by Correa.
“The good part was, he competed like crazy,” Francona said on Bibee’s outing. “I didn’t think he had his best stuff, nor his best command. But he competes like crazy, and that’s a great quality.”
Bibee described his outing after the game: ”It was a hard day, kind of all around. I did fight, but all around…pretty tough.”
The Guardians would tie the game in the third inning on a 2-run home run by Bo Naylor - his eighth of the season.
Cleveland took a 3-2 lead on Straw’s 5th-inning sacrifice fly, but Minnesota’s Christian Vasquez roped a solo home run to tie the game in the 6th against reliever Matt Moore.
Stephen was credited with the loss in his two-thirds inning-long outing, while Griffin Jax earned a relief win for Minnesota by allowing one hit in a shutout frame. Twins starter Sonny Gray pitched six innings in a no-relief effort, allowing six hits and three earned runs while striking out four.
The Guardians (66-73) will try to salvage a win against the visiting Twins (73-66) on Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. Cleveland’s Gavin Williams (1-5, 3.46 ERA) is expected to face off with Minnesota right-hander Joe Ryan (10-8, 4.20 ERA).