Carrasco’s injury adds sting to loss

Twins 9, Indians 3 Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco is checked by a trainer after being hit in the right elbow/forearm area in the second inning. Carrasco left the game after the hit. Terry Francona said. “We’ll know more by (Sunday). … From where I was standing, I thought it might have hit him in the face. There was a little bit of a sense of relief, but it caught it right kind of on that funny bone. He was hurting.”

In his one inning of work, Carrasco was roughed up for four runs, highlighted by Max Kepler’s tworun double off the wall in right field that missed being a grand slam by a few feet.

Carrasco’s exit forced the Indians into a virtual bullpen game, needing to cover the final eight innings. It eventually led to Adam Plutko, Sunday’s scheduled starting pitcher, throwing two innings. That means the Indians will need a roster move before Sunday’s game, and Shane Bieber could be a logical call-up candidate since Sunday falls on his regular day to pitch.

It also led to outfielder Brandon Guyer pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning on eight pitches in an effort to not overextend the bullpen.

“I was a pretty good pitcher back in the day,” Guyer said.

Offensively, the Indians came up with a couple of loud responses to the Twins’ four-run first but not much after that. Francisco Lindor led off the first with a home run, his 16th of the season. Two batters later, Jose Ramirez drilled a no-doubter to right field for his 21st home run of the season.