CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Minnesota brought power with them to Cleveland and clubbed six home runs en route to a 20-6 victory. The Guardians are now six games behind the Twins in the AL Central.
20 runs mark the most runs allowed by the Guardians since surrendering 23 runs on June 4, 2002, at Minnesota in a 23-2 loss.
Lucas Giolito suffered his fourth consecutive loss in his Guardians debut. He threw 76 pitches in three innings, gave up nine earned runs on seven hits, and walked three batters. The nine earned runs tied a career-high for Giolito.
“It just seemed like it unraveled from there [second inning],” manager Terry Francona said. “I felt bad. I told him I didn’t like leaving him out there as long as I did, but I just didn’t know how we were gonna get through the game.”
The last time Giolito gave up nine runs in a game was on August 2nd of this year with the Angels. It was his 24th career appearance against the Twins, and he’s now 30-26 against the AL Central.
“I mean it’s just kinda like a nightmare situation,” Giolito said. “Lack of fastball command. Trying to get the fastball to the glove side was leaking middle and arm side pretty much the entire game, couldn’t make that adjustment. Same thing with the changeup, so kinda a bad combination.”
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Most of the damage came in the second inning. Giolito was cruising as he struck out the first two batters he faced, but the next five batters reached base and scored. Rookie third baseman Royce Lewis hit his third grand slam in a span of eight games. Lewis had six RBI in the series opener, a new single-game career-high.
Minnesota put another five runs on the board in the seventh inning. Joey Gallo and Kyle Farmer both went deep off David Fry who made his second pitching appearance of the year. He pitched the final four innings with 64 pitches and allowed seven runs on 10 hits.
“I don’t care who you are, nobody wants to go out and just get their brains beat out,” Francona said. “He’s strong enough mentally to just not overdo it and he won’t hurt himself, and now hopefully we have a chance to win tomorrow.”
The last Cleveland non-primary pitcher to throw four or more innings was right fielder Milt Galatzer on August 26, 1936. Fry became the first pitcher to throw 30 pitches at under 60 miles per hour in one outing in the pitch-tracking era.
“Just try to throw as many strikes as possible and just get outs for the bullpen,” Fry said. “We’re trying to save them. Who cares what I do? It’s not about me doing good. It’s just get outs, throw slow, don’t get hurt, and get out of there. I feel good right now, tomorrow might be a different story.”
The Twins have hit 122 home runs against Cleveland pitching since the start of 2019. 65 of them have been hit at Progressive Field, that’s the most by any opponent in Cleveland in that stretch.
Cleveland scored three runs prior to the ninth inning. Jose Ramirez hit an RBI triple to score Steven Kwan in the third. Tyler Freeman hit his second career home run in the seventh, and Will Brennan hit an RBI single.
Center fielder Willi Castro pitched for Minnesota in the 9th. Cleveland was able to muster three runs off the position player.
The Twins have won four of their last five Labor Day games and own a 44-26 record on Labor Day since 1961.
The Guardians (66-72) continue their series against the Twins (72-66) tomorrow night. Cleveland remains a win away from securing the season series over Minnesota. Rookie Tanner Bibee (10-3, 3.03 ERA) will pitch for Cleveland. Bibee’s given up five earned runs in 10 innings against the Twins this year.