Don't stop me if you've heard this before.
The Twins got good pitching from a starter they didn't know what to expect from then got shutout relief from beleagured setup men to get to Perkins. They scored a couple runs early from the bottom of the order then added a couple runs in the eighth to give Glen Perkins a nice cushion to work with in a 4-1 win.
No, I'm not recapping Saturday's game. I guess the Twins liked the formula from Saturday so much, they decided to use it on Sunday against the Indians.
This time, it was Tommy Milone in his first start since coming off the DL. He was limited to about 75-80 pitches and I'm sure there had to be some concern that he might reinjure himself since it's difficult to simulate game situations in the bullpen. Can't really complain about 1 run in 5 innings, but he was facing an Indians lineup that has struggled against lefties and has been decimated by injuries and trades. Milone ended up walking 3 and striking out just 3, although he did have twice as many ground balls as fly balls, which is unusual for him, and only two line drives against. His final pitch was his most important as he struck out Yan Gomes with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning and preserve a 2-1 lead.
With only 5 innings from the starter, manager Paul Molitor had to use one extra reliever to bridge the gap to Perkins. He decided to start with the beleagured Brian Duensing before going back to Casey Fien and Kevin Jepsen. They combined for three scoreless innings with just two hits allowed. Jepsen struck out Ryan Rayburn to the 8th with the tying run in scoring position.
The offense had the tough task of facing red-hot Carlos Carrasco. Suzuki was Kurt "Klutch" once again with a two-out, two-strike, two-run single in the second inning to plate the Twins' only runs against Carrasco in 7 innings. A sac fly in the top of the inning had given the Indians the lead, which is an important fact since Carrasco had been 10-0 when given any type of lead. Of course, he had never won 1-0 this year and the first inning is by far his worst this season.
Trevor Plouffe then added a home run in the eighth off a reliever to make it 3-1. Eddie Rosario missed a home run by inches off the high wall in right center and settled for a triple after it took a funny bounce. Rosario might have legged out a home run if he had run hard out of the box. It didn't matter, since Eduardo Nunez laid down a perfect bunt for an RBI single to make it 4-1. On replay, it's hard to tell if it was a squeeze or not. If it was, Rosario got a late break from third. It might have just been a safety squeeze.
Nunez also legged out a double earlier in the game to set up Suzuki's two-run single. He also had a nice play in the hole at shortstop. Nunez always had a bad reputation defensively with the Yankees and the metrics bear that out, but he's been average or a little better in limited playing time in Minnesota. He now has a .705 OPS on the season, which is nothing to complain about from a shortstop if you can get average defense from him