April 26th, 2009
Twins Take Rubber Match in Extras, 7-6
Cleveland (AP) - In a game that was just as exciting as the opener to this series, the Twins took a 7-6 victory over division rival Cleveland Indians. Once again it was Kerry Wood's inability to get an out that bit the Indians in the *** and forced extra innings.
The Twins would score first in this one as Michael Cuddyer singled in Delmon Young who led off the second inning with a double before Aaron Laffey would induce three straight fly balls to center to end the inning with the Twins ahead 1-0. The Indians would answer right back and in a big way in the bottom of the inning. Hafner and Choo doubled back to back to tie it at 1-1. Then Kelly Shoppach hit a two run homer to put the Indians up 3-1. Minnesota would get back to within 1 in the top of the 3rd on a sacrifice fly by Justin Morneau.
The Indians would add single runs in the bottom of the 4th on an RBI single by David Dellucci and in the 6th on an RBI sacrifice fly also by Dellucci to give the Indians a 5-2 lead heading into the top of the 8th. The Twins would have a golden opportunity to tie things up or even take a lead but they would not capitalize. Joe Mauer led the inning off with a single followed by a Morneau walk. Young would fly out to center, advancing Mauer to 3rd where he would be driven in by Cuddyer on a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3. Kobayashi would then walk Casilla and Kubel to load the bases up with 2 outs for Nick Punto. The Twins elected not to pinch hit for Punto as their options were Tolbert, Buscher, and Redmond, and the Indians had called upon Rafael Perez to get out of the jam. Buscher would have been the option had they stuck with Kobayashi, but neither of the bench players hit lefties particularly well. Punto wound up flying out to center to end the rally.
The Indians would add what, at the time, would be a critical insurance run on an RBI double by David Delluci scoring Choo who singled earlier in the inning to make it 6-3 off Mike Timlin. The Twins would not go quietly, however, as they jumped all over Kerry Wood. Span and Nomar each singled to put two on with nobody out. Then Joe Mauer came through with his biggest hit of the season launching a 3 run homer into the right field bullpen tying the ballgame up at 6-6. Rafael Betancourt would come in and sit down the next 3 batters, but obviously the damage was already done.
Extras for the most part was uneventful as both teams relievers were in control for the first two innings. Jonathan Meloan wound up being the loser as Delmon Young led off the top of the 12th with a double off the left field wall, his second of the game. Cuddyer would ground out to 2nd advancing Young to 3rd. Young would score on what was ruled an infield hit for Alexi Casilla. Casilla pretty much hit a swinging bunt that went just past the reach of the pitcher and had to be fielded by the second baseman who had no play at either Young or Casilla as Young came across to score giving the Twins the 7-6 lead. Joe Nathan would slam the door shut in the bottom of the inning picking up his 3rd save of the season.
The Twins improved to 11-8 with the win and the Indians dropped to 13-6. Minnesota will finish off April with a 3 game homestand against the 12-7 Rays. Blackburn (1-2 5.19 ERA) will face off against Sonnanstine (2-0 2.66 ERA) in the opener.
Box Score
Code:
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R H E
MIN 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 7 17 0
CLE 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 6 11 0
Cleveland Indians
BATTING AB R H RBI BB SO AVG
DeRosa, 3B 6 0 2 0 0 2 .316
Peralta, SS 6 0 1 0 0 2 .256
Sizemore, CF 6 0 0 0 0 1 .313
Hafner, DH 6 2 2 0 0 1 .203
Garko, 1B 5 1 1 0 0 0 .296
Choo, RF 5 2 2 1 0 2 .329
Shoppach, C 2 1 1 2 2 1 .360
a-Cabrera, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 .298
Delluci, LF 3 0 2 3 0 0 .256
b-Martinez, PH 0 0 0 0 0 0 .386
Francisco, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .293
Barfield, 2B 5 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Batting Totals 45 6 11 6 2 9
a - Batted for Shoppach in the 11th.
b - Batted for Dellucci in the 11th.
BATTING
2B: Hafner 2 (3), Garko (3), DeRosa (5), Choo (4), Dellucci (1)
HR: Shoppach (1)
RBI: Choo (13), Shoppach 2 (5), Dellucci 3 (7)
HBP: Martinez
SF: Dellucci
PITCHING IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Laffey 7.0 10 3 3 1 2 5.01
Kobayashi (H, 2) 0.2 0 0 0 3 0 0.59
Perez (H, 5) 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 7.71
Wood (BS, 2) 0.0 3 3 3 0 0 6.75
Betancourt 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 0.00
Meloan (L, 0-1) 3.0 3 1 1 0 0 3.00
Pitching Totals 12.0 17 7 7 4 3
Minnesota Twins
BATTING AB R H RBI BB SO AVG
Span, RF 5 2 2 0 1 1 .333
Nomar, 3B 6 1 3 0 0 0 .306
Mauer, C 6 2 4 3 0 0 .274
Morneau, 1B 4 0 1 1 1 1 .338
Young, LF 6 2 3 0 0 0 .294
Cuddyer, DH 5 0 1 2 0 1 .375
Casilla, 2B 5 0 3 1 1 0 .391
Gomez, CF 1 0 0 0 0 0 .246
a-Kubel, PH 2 0 0 0 1 0 .271
Punto, SS 5 0 0 0 0 0 .226
Batting Totals 45 7 17 7 4 3
a - Batted for Gomez in the 8th.
BATTING
2B: Casilla (3), Young 2 (8)
HR: Mauer (1)
RBI: Casilla (5), Mauer 3 (11), Morneau (15), Cuddyer 2 (12)
HBP: Punto
SF: Morneau, Cuddyer
SAC: Gomez 2
GIDP: Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer
PITCHING IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Perkins 6.0 7 5 5 2 4 4.39
Humber 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00
Timlin 1.0 2 1 1 0 1 7.20
Guerrier 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 1.74
Breslow 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 2.25
Crain (W, 2-0) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 1.80
Nathan (S, 3) 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 1.50
Pitching Totals 12.0 11 6 6 2 9
04-03-2009, 10:38 PM
