The races: Twins down Indians, Astros lose to Angels
Phil Hughes pitched five scoreless innings in his return to the rotation and the Minnesota Twins had rare success against Corey Kluber in a 4-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night to move within a game of the second AL wild-card spot.
Minnesota trails Houston by a game after the Astros lost to the Angels earlier Wednesday.
Hughes (11-9) allowed four hits and struck out four. Brian Dozier homered and Trevor Plouffe had two doubles, a single and an RBI for the Twins (7873).
Kluber (8-15) gave up four runs on five hits and struck out six in 32⁄3 innings for the Indians. Cleveland played without star outfielder Michael Brantley, who injured his shoulder while diving for a ball on Tuesday night.
Carlos Santana hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Indians (74-76), who now trail the Astros by 51⁄ 2 games with 12 left to play. ANGELS 6, ASTROS 5: The Los Angeles Angels aren’t where they want to be yet, but they’re closer than they were at the start of the week. David Freese hit a go-ahead two-run double in a three-run eighth inning to help the Angels rally for a win over the Astros on Wednesday.
Los Angeles took two of three in the series and is 11⁄2 games behind Houston for the second American League wild-card spot.
“We’re staying focused, know what we need to do, don’t try to force it, just do our job and win series,” slugger Albert Pujols said.
The Astros took their first lead of the game in the seventh, and the Angels trailed 4-3 entering the eighth. Mike Trout hit a leadoff double off Will Harris (5-5) before David Murphy drew a walk with one out, and Harris was replaced by Pat Neshek.
Freese’s double sailed just beyond left fielder Colby Rasmus’s reach on the warning track and made the score 5-4.
“I started praying that the juice box was small enough for it to go off the wall,” Freese said, using a nickname for Minute Maid Park. “But yeah, I clipped it, and it just went far enough out of reach of Rasmus.
“So it ended up being good for us.”