Samuel Deduno made his first start of the season tonight in place of the injured and struggling Mike Pelfrey, but the end result was unfortunately not much different for the Twins. In the bottom of the first, Deduno gave up a double to Nick Swisher, who was then driven-in on a single by Michael Brantley. Brantley scored on an error by Chris Colabello.
Deduno was able to keep his performance up, starting off the second inning by giving a single to Lonnie Chisenhall and then a balk. Throw in a double to Yan Gomes and a single to Nick Swisher, and the Twins are already down four runs by the bottom of the 2nd inning, and it turned out that was all the Indians would need.
The Twins did have a couple of bright points in the game, most notably Logan Darnell's major league debut. Darnell pitched three perfect innings in relief of Samuel Deduno, including getting an out on his first ever pitch and needing only 8 pitches total to retire the side in his first inning. Chris Colabello hit his fourth home run of the season in the 7th inning, but most fans had already switched to the Wild game.
The Twins put up a mini-rally in the 9th inning, when Kurt Suzuki reached first on an error by Asdrubal Cabrerra and scored on a single by Twins-hero Eduardo Escobar. But alas, Eduardo can't do it all, and pinch-hitter Josmil Pinto popped-out to end the game.
Side note: The official attendance for this game was 9,621.
STUDS
- Logan Darnell - Major league debut! 3 innings pitched, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout.
- Chris Colabello - 1 for 4, 1 home run.
- Samuel Deduno - 5 inning pitched, 6 hits, 2 walks, 3 earned runs.
- Brian Dozier - 0 for 4, 0 hits, 0 walks.
- Sam Fuld - 0 for 4, 0 hits, 0 walks.
- Trevor Plouffe - 0 for 4, 0 hits, 0 walks (seriously, getting old).