For a brief moment, it looked as if the Twins were on the brink of a statement victory against one of baseball's most effective relief pitchers.
But that pitcher showed why he's considered among the best.
With bases loaded and nobody out, Emmanuel Clase struck out Willi Castro on a full count, then got Trevor Larnach ground into a double play.
No runs, and no win for the Twins, who fell to the Cleveland Guardians 5-3 on Sunday for what many feel is a disappointing split of their four-game weekend series at Target Field.
The Twins swept last Friday's split doubleheader, their first wins over the first-place Guardians this season, to pull to within a game-and-a-half of Cleveland in the AL Central.
But the bats went silent the rest of the weekend, accounting for only four runs in the two losses that returned Cleveland's lead over the Twins to three-and-a-half games.
“We had several innings where we whacked the ball all around the ballpark and we end up scoring no runs,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Stuff where you think it’s almost impossible not to score. The vast majority of them it’s not like our guys did anything too wrong, they just hit the ball too hard and hit the ball right at people. If one or two of those runs come into play, we’re in a good spot.”
David Fry and José Ramírez homered for the Guardians on Sunday, with Byron Buxton hitting two homers for the Twins' only scoring.
The Guardians won their second straight after losing seven in a row, and now lead Minnesota by 3 1/2 games. Kansas City is four games back.
The final at-bat for the Twins was a hard ground ball up the middle by Trevor Larnach that Cleveland second baseman fielded with a nifty backhanded stop.
“In that AB I wanted to get a ground ball to him. I was lucky to get it, and I always have 100% confidence in him,” Clase said through an interpreter.
Facing adversity for one of the rare times this season, Cleveland bounced back nicely in the series after being swept in Friday’s doubleheader.
“To come back and win the next two, even that last inning where they get bases loaded and no outs to get out of it was really cool,” Fry said.
The Guardians broke the game open with a four-run sixth inning. With one out, Fry lined a home run off Caleb Thielbar (2-3) for just his third extra-base hit in 27 games. Prior to the 405-foot shot to the left of the bullpens, the American League All-Star was in a 4-for-32 slump.
A broken bat single by Brayan Rocchio and a seeing-eye single through the hole by Steven Kwan each drove in runs, as did a double by Will Brennan for a 5-1 lead. It is the first time in six games Cleveland scored more than three runs.
Tanner Bibee (10-4) made his first start in 13 days for the Guardians, missing his last turn in the rotation with right shoulder soreness. In 5 2/3 innings he scattered six hits and struck out five. Cleveland is 18-5 this season when Bibee starts.
In his sixth career start, Minnesota’s David Festa allowed one earned run and three hits in 3 1/3 innings, but he walked three and was pulled after 70 pitches. Last Monday against the Cubs, he allowed two hits and struck out a career-high nine in five innings.
UP NEXT
Twins righthander Pablo López (10-8, 4.74) is scheduled to start Monday at home against Kansas City righty Brady Singer (8-7, 3.03).