The Twins rallied to tie Sunday’s game at 3-3, but after reliever, Trevor May, served up a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh inning, the fight and game were lost, 4-3.
The Twins still won two of three games and have a 6.5 game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.
Twins starter Jose Berrios wasn’t real sharp. He struck out six over five innings, but also allowed three runs and three walks and threw 92 pitches.
Cleveland scored a run in the first inning, two more in the fourth, then the Twins answered with three runs in the seventh, including two favorable hit-by-pitch calls. The Twins’ Mitch Garver was hit by a pitch, which was challenged and upheld, then Jake Cave was ruled hit by a pitch, which would ultimately score Garver.
Reliever May took the loss and fell to 3-2 with a 3.12 ERA. Michael Pineda gets the ball Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are 58-34.
-The Twins now fly home for nine games against the New York Mets, Oakland A’s and New York Yankees. The Twins are 3-5 so far this season against all three teams. But those games were on the road and not at home where the Twins are 28-15. The Twins also beat the Mets 14-8 in April.
-The Twins faced good pitching on Sunday, which explains why they were 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. They also struck out 15 times as a team. Max Kepler, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano accounted for nine of those whiffs.
-Twins radio play-by-play man Cory Provus summed it up best after Saturday’s win: “Statement weekend, statement series, statement made by the boys in blue.”
-Something I missed: Reliever Adalberto Mejia was designated for assignment to make room for Jake Odorizzi.