Twins walk off Tribe late in Puerto Rico
Rosario scores to end game in homeland
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Eddie Rosario scored the winning run in his homeland in the bottom of the 16th inning, coming around on Ryan Lamarre’s single to lift the Minnesota Twins over the Cleveland Indians
2-1 on Wednesday to split their twogame series in Puerto Rico.
Rosario led off the 16th with a single and went to third when Logan Morrison’s grounder — which could have been a double-play ball — got past second baseman Jason Kipnis.
Eduardo Escobar was intentionally walked to load the bases with none out, and Lamarre finally ended the 5-hour, 13-minute marathon with a sharp liner to center.
The game took so long that Minnesota’s Joe Mauer and Zach Duke both aged a year — they turn 35 on Thursday, which meant their birthdays started around the 16th inning.
The teams were scoreless until trading solo homers in the 14th. Edwin Encarnacion got his off the leftfield foul pole for Cleveland, and Miguel Sano tied it for the Twins leading off the bottom half against former Minnesota pitcher Matt Belisle.
Cleveland used 23 players, with only three starting pitchers left on the bench by game’s end. Josh Tomlin (0-2) made his first relief appearance since 2016 and took the loss though the only run he allowed was unearned.
Minnesota used eight pitchers, Alan Busenitz (1-0) the last of them. Busenitz worked the last two innings.
The game was played hours after an island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico in the morning, though officials quickly determined the game at Hiram Bithorn Stadium could go on as scheduled with the help of backup systems.
Both starters were brilliant, each throwing seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball. Jose Berrios finished with five strikeouts and no walks for Minnesota, and Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco struck out seven and walked one.
The game started with Puerto Rican vs. Puerto Rican, Berrios vs. the Indians’ Francisco Lindor, Cleveland’s offensive hero in Tuesday night’s win. Berrios set the tone in three pitches: Lindor fouled off the first two, then couldn’t check his swing on the third.