Indians 10, Twins 1

Written by: Justin Murphy on 3rd June 2009

Indians 10, Twins 1 | read this item

Anthony Swarzak’s third major league start was his worst yet, and a big third inning did the Twins in on Wednesday night against the Indians, as they lost 10-1 at the Metrodome.

Swarzak threw almost exclusively fastballs through three innings, especially early in the count, but did not have much movement on them. He was still unscathed after the first two batters in the third inning, but allowed a two-out single to Ben Francisco. Jamey Carroll, Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo followed with dinks of their own, then Jhonny Peralta unloaded a three-run homer to deep left center, making the score 5-0. It was only Peralta’s second homer of the season, and came on a lazy breaking ball up in the strike zone.

In the fourth inning, Swarzak allowed another run after having retired the first two batters, and that is as far as he went. His final line was six earned runs on nine hits with three strikeouts, all in four innings pitched. It was his shortest outing since April 11 with the Red Wings.

R.A. Dickey came on in relief and threw two scoreless innings, then handed the ball of to Luis Ayala, who gave up two unearned runs after an Alexi Casilla error in the eighth. Jesse Crain finished the evening for Minnesota and gave up a pair of his own, these on a Kelly Shoppach double.

At the dish, the Twins were stifled by lefty Cliff Lee. He lasted eight innings and allowed one run on six hits with five strikeouts and a walk. The Twins’ one run came in the bottom of the seventh on a Carlos Gomez RBI single.

Earlier, Gomez was involved in a mini-fracas when he and Lee exchanged words after a fly out. Apparently, Lee was not amused by Gomez’ bunt attempt with two strikes on him in the third inning, and, according to the lip reading abilities of Dan Gladden (who knew?), called Gomez an idiot on his way back to the dugout. Cooler heads ultimately prevailed.

Brendan Harris had a single and a walk, and has now hit safely in eight straight games. Joe Mauer also singled, and has reached base in 24 of his last 25 games. Justin Morneau hit into two double plays—one a line drive to the outfield on which Mauer got doubled off—after having done so twice last night; it was one of four for Minnesota on the evening. Facing the southpaw Lee, the Twins’ left-handed hitters were a combined 4-14.

The Twins had Joe Crede back in the lineup for the first time since May 30 in Tampa Bay. What’s more, Crede was slotted in the cleanup position—the first time he’s hit there in his career. In his first at-bat, he chased a high fastball for a strikeout, and in his second flied out to the warning track. He did, however, make several clean plays at third base.

Cleveland got multiple hits from Francisco, Carroll, Martinez, Peralta and Mark DeRosa, and at least one from every batter. Second baseman Luis Valbuena scored twice for the Tribe. Tomorrow’s game pits Fausto Carmona against Scott Baker at noon central time.

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Topics: Alexi Casilla, Anthony Swarzak, Ben Francisco, Brendan Harris, Carlos Gomez, Cleveland Indians, Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, Jamey Carroll, Jesse Crain, Jhonny Peralta, Joe Crede, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Kelly Shoppach, Luis Ayala, Luis Valbuena, Mark DeRosa, Minnesota Twins, R.A. Dickey, Scott Baker, Shin-Soo Choo, Victor Martinez