Twins Use Small Ball To Beat Indians 3-2

The Twins and Indians had another low-scoring affair in which the Indians took the lead only to see the Twins come racing back in a second consecutive 3-2 win at Target Field on Saturday night.

The offenses for both teams were having trouble getting anything going against the Twins' Kevin Correia and Indians' Corey Kluber. Correia did not allow a hit until the 4th inning, and gave up only two runs on an opposite-field home run by Jason Kipnis in the 6th inning. Meanwhile, Kluber struck out 7 Twins and only allowed 3 hits and 2 walks without a run, but left after 5 innings with hip soreness, drawing a premature close to tonight's meeting of the Corey Kluber Society.

While the Indians used the long ball to score their runs in the 6th, the Twins went with small ball to take back the lead in the bottom of the inning. With reliever Rich Hill in the game after Kluber had left, Joe Mauer led off with a walk and Justin Morneau moved him up to 3rd base with a single to right. Next up was Ryan Doumit, who bounced a slow chopper to 3rd base. Lonnie Chisenhall, having no chance at a double play, attempted to get Mauer out at home, but his throw was wide right of catcher Carlos Santana, and Mauer was safe with the Twins' first run.

Morneau advanced to 3rd and Doumit to 2nd with nobody out, and with Chris Colabello at the plate, the Indians countered by bringing in righty Bryan Shaw. Although Shaw did fool Colabello with a slider, Colabello still was able to bloop the pitch into right field to score Morneau and tie the game at 2. After a strikeout by Aaron Hicks, Clete Thomas hit a routine double play grounder to second baseman Jason Kipnis. However, Kipnis briefly dropped the ball, and the miscue allowed Thomas to beat the relay throw at 1st, which scored Doumit with the go-ahead run.

From there, the Twins bullpen took over and shut the door. Brian Duensing did struggle a bit with hitting Carlos Santana and walking pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn, but Jared Burton relieved him and kept the Indians from doing any more damage, and then Casey Fien and Glen Perkins teamed up in the 8th and 9th innings to put away the Tribe for good.

WP: Kevin Correia (7-6)

LP: Rich Hill (1-2)

S: Glen Perkins (23)

Studs

Joe Mauer (2 for 3, R, BB, 2B), Justin Morneau (2 for 3, R, BB), Kevin Correia (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K)

Duds

Brian Dozier (0 for 4, K), Trevor Plouffe (0 for 4, 4 K), Aaron Hicks (0 for 4, 2 K)

Player of the Game

There's no real outstanding player from today's game, so I think I'll go with Kevin Correia for keeping the Indians off the scoreboard for most of the game.