HR power carries Twins past Indians

MINNEAPOLIS » Nelson Cruz hit his 16th homer, and the Twins beat the Indians, 7-5, on Sept. 13 to complete a sweep of their weekend series.

Indians rookie Triston McKenzie (2-1) struggled for the first time in his fifth career start. McKenzie gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings, despite surrendering just three hits. He struck out seven, issued one walk and hit a batter.

Cesar Hernandez and Carlos Santana each had three hits, but the Indians dropped their sixth straight game.

“Losing six in a row is definitely no fun, but I think we’re in a good spot mentally and the day off will help us kind of reset and get going,” McKenzie said.

Marwin Gonzalez, Ryan Jeffers and Josh Donaldson also connected for home runs, helping Minnesota win for the 10th time in 12 games.

The Twins have multiple homers in six straight games, including 11 in the series against Cleveland.

“It was impressive,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I mean, honestly, that’s an impressive series offensively that we’ve had against as good of a pitching staff as I’ve seen in baseball.”

The Twins stayed one game back of AL Centralleading Chicago, which beat Detroit 5-2 on Sept. 13. The Twins visit the White Sox for the opener of a fourgame series on Monday night.

Caleb Thielbar (2-0) got the win, recording two outs in relief of Michael Pineda. Sergio Romo earned his fourth save by striking out Franmil Reyes and retiring Tyler Naquin on a fly ball to center after allowing two hits in the ninth.

“It feels like we’re playing the postseason,” Gonzalez said.

“It’s not really the postseason, but we’re fighting for first place. And that matters a lot.”

Cleveland jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Gonzalez got the Twins on the board with a two-run homer in the third.

Cruz tied it with a solo drive in the fourth, moving into a tie for the major league lead in homers.

Jeffers hit a two-run shot in the fifth, his third of the season, and Donaldson added his fourth homer of the year.

After setting the major league record for homers last season, Minnesota started the day with 70 homers, fifth in the majors this season.

“Since Donaldson came back, the team looks more deep,” Cruz said. “It seems more complete. So definitely when you miss big pieces like him, (Byron) Buxton, (Max) Kepler, Mitch (Garver), I don’t think we have been able to stay healthy, the whole group, this year. That kept us down. We’re getting those guys back in the lineup and the way we’re swinging is better.”

Up next

INDIANS » RHP Carlos Carrasco (2-4, 3.12 ERA) will start Sept. 15 as Cleveland opens a two-game road series against the Cubs, who are scheduled to start RHP Yu Darvish (7-2, 1.77 ERA). Carrasco has allowed one run or less in each of his past three starts.