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The Twins nearly came all the way back in this one. After being down 5-0 and then 6-1, the offense rallied for a four-run ninth against Indians closer Chris Perez. Eduardo Escobar scored on Alex Presley's triple to the gap to start the scoring, Brian Dozier plated the second run on a ground out, and Josmil Pinto took an easy swing on a 1-0 fastball that went the other way and just made it into the lower bed in the right field overhang.
Terry Francona pulled Perez, but the Twins nearly completed the comeback against Joe Smith. Trevor Plouffe singled and Chris Colabello walked to put the tying run 180 feet from home. But Oswaldo Aria struck out on three pitches to end the threat, pinch hitting for Darin Mastroianni who probably thought "hell, I could have done that."
Andrew Albers got out of trouble in the first and third innings before the war of attrition broke the game open. With Ryan Raburn on second, Asdrubal Cabrera tried to bunt but popped the ball up in the air. It was a bit in no-man's land, with no chance of being played by Pinto, but Albers made an awkward slide and nearly caught the ball. But he didn't, and instead of just holding the ball to keep runners on the corners he tried to get the out at first. It wasn't a good throw and Colabello didn't do a nice job scooping the ball either, and it skipped away to allow Raburn to score. Yan Gomes homered two pitches later to make the game 3-0.
Ryan Pressley was brought out to stem the bleeding in the sixth, when Albers left the game with two outs and the bases loaded. Pressley couldn't get the job done, as Michael Brantly pushed the game to 4-0 on a line drive to center. In 5.2 innings, Albers succumbed to what will be his Achilles Heel if he continues to have a Major League career: hits in bunches.
The win for Cleveland keeps them a game in front of the Rangers, who took down the Angels last night by the same score. The Twins have three games left, and as long as Texas keeps winning there's still that chance at playing spoiler.
ROLL CALL!
- Brananorama (44)
- myjah (21)
- jere.johnson.37 (20)
- SooFoo Fan (17)
- kenzertz (15)
- The Twins actually out-hit the Indians, 13 to 11, but once again struggled with runners in scoring position by going 2-for-13.
- Michael Tonkin was the only Twins pitcher to take the hill and not allow a run. He struck out two in 1.2 innings of work.
- Presley, Ryan Doumit, Pinto, Plouffe, and Escobar all had multi-hit games.
- Presley, Pinto, and Plouffe all added a walk.
- Chris Colabello only had one hit but drew a pair of walks.
- Doumit and Pinto hooked up on a nice outfield assist. Carlos Santana tried to tag up on a medium-deep fly ball, and Doumit's throw went right to the plate. Pinto caught the ball and turned in out motion, getting the glove on Santana to complete the double play.
- Hitting in the eight hole, Mastroianni's 0-for-4 night stranded a team-high six base runners.
- THIS PINTO GUY.