Indians 7, Twins 2: Familiar Story as Pitching Falters and Bats Fall Silent

By the time the Twins and Indians were finally able to take the field, the game had already been delayed by more than two hours. Minnesota responded quickly by coming out of the gate quickly; Brian Dozier doubled and moved to third on a Joe Mauer fly out, and then scoring on a sac fly from Josh Willingham. Chris Colabello followed up by doing what he so often did in 2013 when flashing his power: he took an outside pitch, went with it, and launched it to the right field side of straightaway center for a solo home run.

Mike Pelfrey was, for five innings, effective. He didn't allow a hit until Carlos Santana led off the fifth with a double, but it was in the sixth when things started to slip away. Three walks and a pair of homers, from Yan Gomes and Myjah's favorite player Nick Swisher, gave the lead to the home team before Casey Fien managed to get the two final outs of the frame without allowing further damage.

Having thrown just seven pitches, Fien was also on the hill in the seventh when Cleveland strung together three hits in a row chase him from the game. Caleb Thielbar couldn't stem the tied, allowing two more runs to score before the hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing performance came to an end with the score 7-2.

It was a disappointing performance after a hot start. Fien and Thielbar allowed four runs in the span of two-thirds of an inning, providing such a hole that even if the offense had been able to get going, they'd have more work ahead of them than would be comfortable.

The Twins fall to 1-3 on the season as the Indians improve to 3-1. We'll see you at noon tomorrow as Kyle Gibson tries to even the series.

Studs

Duds