We misidentified today's starter for the Indians in our earlier update. The start actually went to Carlos Carrasco, not to Jeanmar Gomez. Apologies for the error.
The Minnesota Twins extended their winning streak to a season-long three games on Sunday, as Jason Kubel's two-run double in the bottom of the seventh put them ahead to stay and gave them a 4-3 victory over the AL Central leading Cleveland Indians.
Minnesota struck first in the bottom of the third inning off of Indians' started Carlos Carrasco. Alexi Casilla and Denard Span started the inning with consecutive singles, and after Jason Repko flew out to left, Kubel laced a single to right field. Casilla ran directly through the stop sign from the third base coach, and Indians' right fielder Shin-Soo Choo threw Casilla out at the plate by a good five feet, if not more. Fortunately, Justin Morneau came through, doubling to deep center field to score both Span and Kubel and give the Twins an early 2-0 lead.
The next hitter, Michael Cuddyer, singled to right as well. After initially waving Morneau home, third base coach Steve Liddle put up the stop sign, but it was too late. Choo gunned down Morneau as well, and the Twins had to settle for two runs.
The Indians answered back in the top of the fourth off of Carl Pavano. After Pavano got the first out, he walked Carlos Santana and allowed a single to Travis Hafner. Orlando Cabrera and Michael Brantley then hit back-to-back doubles, resulting in three runs for the Tribe and a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth.
Minnesota would not score again until the bottom of the seventh, when they would retake the lead. Alexi Casilla again led off with a single, and Orlando Cabrera committed a costly error on a ground ball by Denard Span, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. After Repko sacrificed the runners over, Kubel launched a double off of the wall in right-center field, bring both Casilla and Span home to score and putting the Twins ahead 4-3.
That would be all the scoring in this one. The ninth inning would provide us a little bit of excitement from Matt Capps, as Grady Sizemore ripped a double down the right field line with two out, but Asdrubal Cabrera flew out to the warning track in left field for the final out.
Pavano picked up the win in this one, evening his record at 2-2 on the season and lowering his ERA to a slightly less robust 5.12. Capps picked up his fourth consecutive save. Rafael Perez took the loss for the Indians, dropping his record on the season to 2-1.
Minnesota has the day off on Monday, and will then start a three-game set at Target Field against the Tampa Bay Rays. We'll have all the coverage of that series for you right here at SB Nation Minnesota.