Encarnacion drives in five, Indians cap series sweep
MINNEAPOLIS — There's still a lot of baseball left to play this season, but it's hard to overlook what the Cleveland Indians did over the weekend.
Edwin Encarnacion homered twice and had five RBI, Trevor Bauer pitched seven strong innings and Jose Ramirez had three hits for his sixth straight multihit game on Sunday as the Indians completed a fourgame sweep of the Minnesota Twins with a 5-2 victory.
Cleveland came into the series trailing the Twins by two games in the American
League Central. The sweep vaulted the Indians two games ahead and gave the defending AL champions sole possession of first place for the first time since May 10.
“I don’t want to say we bullied them, but we kind of imposed our will on them, and that’s something we’ve been talking about as a team,” Bauer said. “Playing the game the right way with energy and focus and intensity that was really good to see.”
Bauer (6-5) allowed two runs and four hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. He retired 15 consecutive Twins during one stretch.
“I thought today was far and away his best outing,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “He just filled up the strike zone with a bunch of quality pitches. We were thrilled with the way he was throwing the ball.”
Andrew Miller worked a hitless ninth for his first save of the season.
Kyle Gibson (4-5) retired nine straight before Encarnacion hit a 443-foot drive to the second deck in left field to put Cleveland on top 1-0 in the third.
Two innings later, the designated hitter did it again, launching a sky-high fly to left that carried into the second deck. The tworun shot was his third homer of the series and 15th of the season and it gave the Indians a 3-0 lead.
“He’s a very special hitter, and now we’re seeing it,” Francona said. “Through the first six weeks it was a fight for him. Right now, he’s getting locked in and he’s dangerous.”