It was a night full of home runs at Progressive Field as the Indians pulled one out late against the Minnesota Twins by a final of 7-6.
There were six home runs hit in the game with four of those coming off the bats of the Twins.
Indians starter Josh Tomlin got off to a rocky start after he gave up a solo shot in each of the first two innings. Miguel Sano went deep in the first and Byung Ho Park followed him up in the second. Both Twins homers traveled over 450 feet.
Tomlin labored through the second. Luckily for the Tribe, Park’s solo home run in the inning was of the lead off variety as Tomlin would later work out of a bases loaded jam to hold the Twins to only one run in the inning.
Through two innings Tomlin had already thrown 49 pitches and walked as many batters in the second (2) as he had all season entering tonight’s game.
In the third, Park would put his second ball in the bleachers when he hit a two run homer after Trevor Plouffe reached first on an error by Juan Uribe.
After Park’s second home run, Tomlin found his rhythm as he would go on to retire the next 12 Twins hitters he faced before Kyle Crockett came on in relief in the seventh.
Tomlin finished the night tossing 6.1 innings allowing four runs, three earned on four hits while walking two and striking out four. The righty threw 103 pitches, 66 for strikes.
The Tribe got on the board in the second inning when Yan Gomes hit his fourth home run of the season to tie the game at two for the Indians after Jose Ramirez doubled earlier in the inning.
Jason Kipnis would follow up Gomes in the next inning with a solo shot of his own to bring the Tribe within one.
The score stayed 4-3 in favor of the Twins until Marlon Byrd hit a sac fly to right in the sixth, scoring Francisco Lindor and tying the game at four.
The Twins hit yet another home run in the eighth when Eduardo Nunez put one in the bleaches to give the Twins a 5-4 lead.
Bryan Shaw started the eighth but didn’t last long as Zach McAllister would come in and strike out Kurt Suzuki with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Then came the bottom of the eighth.
Lindor lead off the inning with a single to right before Mike Napoli struck out looking on a borderline third strike call. Next up was Ramirez who worked a 2-2 count before Lindor took off and swiped second base. Ramirez would draw a walk and up came Byrd.
Byrd smacked a double to dead center over Danny Santana’s head scoring Lindor and Ramirez to give the Indians a 6-5 lead.
Uribe followed up Byrd’s double with an RBI single, scoring Tyler Naquin who came on to run for Byrd.
In came Cody Allen to slam the door for the tribe.
Santana started the inning for the Twins with a double down the line in right before he advanced to third on a throwing error by Naquin. Santana would score on a Nunez single to center. Nunez put himself in scoring position when he stole second base. Gomes nearly threw the ball into center field.
Allen didn’t make it easy on himself as he walked Plouffe after striking out Sano. With runners at the corners Allen threw a fastball by Park to end the game with a strikeout.
The Tribe closer is now nine of nine in save opportunities this season.
The Indians improve to 1-3 against the Twins this year after getting swept in Minnesota in April. The two teams will play game two of their three game set Saturday at 4:10. It will be Ervin Santana going for the Twins against the Tribe’s Corey Kluber.
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