For Twins, reversing trend is easy as 1-2-3

Rosario’s third homer of day beats Tribe

MINNEAPOLIS — After suffering through a historic streak of walk-off losses, the Minnesota Twins were happy to reverse the trend.

Eddie Rosario hit his third home run of the game, a two-run shot in the ninth inning, to lift the Twins over the Cleveland Indians 7-5 Sunday.

On Tuesday, the Twins tied the 1968 Pirates and 2010 Mariners with their eighth walk-off loss in their first 50 games.

“As many as we’ve experienced, we haven’t had a lot of those chances to see the home-plate celebrations,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “The right guy did it.”

Rosario became the first Twins player to have two three-homer games. He also hit three home runs last June 13 at home against Seattle.

Minnesota beat the American League Central-leading Indians for the third straight day.

Cleveland closer Cody Allen (2-2) walked Brian Dozier to lead off the ninth. Then he fell behind Rosario 2-and-1. With the heart of the Twins’ order due up, Rosario knew Allen couldn’t afford to put another runner on.

“After he threw me a second ball, I knew he was going to throw me a fastball,” said Rosario, who popped up a 2-and-0 pitch against Allen when they faced each other Thursday.

Rosario, who began the day with 10 homers, hit a solo homer in the first and another in the seventh. Dozier also homered for the Twins, who erupted for 29 runs in the fourgame series.

Edwin Encarnacion hit two long home runs for Cleveland, and Michael Brantley’s solo shot off Addison Reed in the eighth tied it at 5.