Twins 6, Indians 5: Twins Lose Less To Beat Indians In Twelve Innings

The Twins and Indians went back and forth giving up the lead to one another over twelve innings tonight--but in the end only one team could lose, and that team was the Cleveland Indians.

The Twins struck early, scoring twice in the bottom of the first on a Joe Mauer RBI single and a Justin Morneau sacrifice fly. However, since the Twins are also terrible, the game was soon tied as P.J. Walters gave up a run on two singles in the bottom of the first and tied the game with a solo home run to Lonnie Chisenhall in the second.

Inexplicably, Walters then went on to retire the next 11 batters. He appeared set to pitch seven innings for the first time since May 27th, but instead came out for the sixth and promptly gave up three straight singles to Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Kipnis, and Asdrubal Cabrera. Walters was replaced by Brian Duensing, who tried his best, but the Indians ended up tying the game on an error by Trevor Plouffe before taking the lead with an RBI groundout from Ezequiel Carerra.

Luckily, the Indians aren't very good either, as Josh Willingham hit an RBI single in the top of the eighth to tie the game back up. The game remained tied 4-4 until the bottom of the tenth inning then the Indians loaded the bases with no outs--but even then they failed the score, and the game pressed on. Finally, in the top of the twelfth with two outs, Darin Mastroianni scored the go-ahead run for the Twins on a weak ground ball from Alexi Casilla. Luckily, Alexi Casilla also scored an insurance run after singles by Jamey Carroll and Pedro Florimon, as Glen Perkins gave up a solo home run in the bottom of the inning, but managed to hold on to the lead and once and for all put this game out of its misery.

With tonight's win, the Twins and Indians are now tied for the worst record in the American League.

Studs and duds after the jump.

Studs

• Joe Mauer: 3 for 4 (Joe's MLB leading 20th 3-hit game this season), 2 walks, 1 RBI.
• Denard Span: 3 for 6, leadoff double, 2 runs.
• Brian Duensing: 3 innings pitched, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 1 strikeout (although technically also charged with a blown save).
• Tyler Roberston: 1.1 innings pitches, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout.