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Tyler Duffey, Jorge Polanco lead Minnesota Twins over Cleveland Indians

By Jim Ingraham, The Sports Xchange
Minnesota Twins manager and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Paul Molitor. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
Minnesota Twins manager and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Paul Molitor. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

CLEVELAND -- Following their 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday, the Minnesota Twins left for Detroit.

They probably would have preferred to stay in Cleveland.

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Tyler Duffey pitched seven scoreless innings and Jorge Polanco hit his first major league home run as the Twins beat the Indians 5-1 Sunday at Progressive Field.

In winning their first road series of the season, the Twins won two of three games in their weekend series with the Indians. Minnesota snapped its eight-game losing streak with a win on Saturday.

The Twins are 4-16 on the road, and two of the four wins were in Cleveland. In games against American League Central teams, the Twins are 4-2 vs. the Indians and 0-12 against everyone else.

"It's a nice series win for us. Hopefully we can take (this momentum) with us to Detroit," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.

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Duffey gave the Twins a huge boost with his seven shutout innings. In three career starts against the Indians, Duffey is 2-0 with a 0.93 ERA, and he has held Indians hitters to a .191 batting average.

"Usually starting pitching dictates whether you win or lose and Tyler was very good today," Molitor said. "He had to pitch around some base runners, but he put up seven zeros."

In seven innings Duffey (1-2) threw 110 pitches and gave up six hits, all singles. He struck out six and walked one.

Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer (3-1) pitched well but got no run support. Bauer pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits with two walks and a season-high eight strikeouts. Two of the three runs Bauer allowed came on two-out hits

"You hate to give up runs anytime, but especially when you're one pitch away from getting out of the inning. But that's going to happen. That's baseball," said Bauer of the two-out RBI hits.

Conversely, seven of Cleveland's nine hits came with two outs.

"We weren't able to get guys on early in the inning, and we weren't able to get two-out hits," Indians manager Terry Francona said.

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The Indians' only run came on a home run by Jason Kipnis, leading off the eighth inning, off reliever Trevor May.

The Twins took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Byung Ho Park led off with a double to left field. Bauer retired the next two batters, but Eddie Rosario singled to right field scoring Park with the first run of the game. Juan Centeno followed with a double to center field to extend the Minnesota lead to 2-0.

Following Centeno's double, Bauer retired the next 12 batters he faced, and 14 of the next 15. However, that streak was halted with one out in the seventh inning when Polanco hammered a 2-2 pitch over the wall in center field to make it a 3-0 Twins lead.

It marked the second consecutive day a Cleveland pitcher gave up the first career homer to a Twins hitter. On Saturday, Centeno hit his first major league homer off Corey Kluber.

"It's nice to have those kind of moments with a player in the clubhouse after he hits his first career homer," Molitor said.

In the ninth inning the Twins scored again on a two-run triple by Rosario.

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"We handled the guys in the middle of their order pretty well, but the guys at the bottom of the order hurt us," Francona said.

The Indians had some scoring opportunities against Duffey, but they failed to get the big hit. In the first inning they had runners at first and third with two outs, but Duffey ended that threat by striking out Cleveland's No. 3 hitter, Francisco Lindor.

In the fourth inning Cleveland had runners at first and second with two outs but failed to score.

In the sixth inning, with a runner at second, Duffey retired Juan Uribe on a groundout to end the inning.

"I was having trouble with my curveball and they kept fouling off pitches looking for it," Duffey said. "I just tried to pitch my game. (Opposing hitters) have seen me. They know what I do. It's a matter of executing my pitches."

NOTES: Indians OF Lonnie Chisenhall is expected to be activated off the bereavement list on Tuesday. ... INF Jose Ramirez has been a valuable utility player for Cleveland manager Terry Francona, starting games at third base and left field. Ramirez, playing left field and hitting fifth, had two hits and is hitting .315 overall and .700 (7-for-10) with two outs and runners in scoring position. ... The Twins traded RHP J.R. Graham to the Yankees for cash considerations. Graham was 1-1 with a 4.95 ERA in 39 appearances with the Twins last year. He was 0-2 with a 10.80 ERA in eight relief appearances at Triple-A Rochester this year.

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