Indians 7, Twins 6 (10)
CLEVELAND -- During their winning streak, the Cleveland Indians didn't have a close game -- until Friday night.
Drew Stubbs' RBI double with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted Cleveland to a 7-6 win over the Minnesota Twins.
It's the Indians' fifth win in a row. The scores of their wins in the first four games of the streak were 10-3, 9-0, 14-2 and 6-0.
Friday the game was closer, but the result was the same.
Mike Aviles led off the bottom of the 10th with a single to right off reliever Casey Fien, Aviles' third hit of the game. Pinch hitter Ezequiel Carrera's sacrifice bunt moved Aviles to second.
Stubbs then belted a line drive into the left-center-field gap for his fourth hit of the game, scoring Aviles with the winning run.
Cleveland closer Chris Perez, who pitched the top of the 10th, got the win. He is 1-0. Fien is 1-2.
The Indians were unable to protect leads of 4-2 and 5-3, and when Chris Parmelee belted a three-run home run off reliever Cody Allen in the seventh inning the Twins took a 6-5 lead.
The Indians tied it in the bottom of the eighth inning when they loaded the bases with one out against reliever Jared Burton, but only scored one run. That run scored on an RBI groundout by Jason Kipnis, whose grounder to second baseman Brian Dozier might have been turned into an inning-ending double play, but Dozier bobbled the ball and had to settle for throwing to first to get Kipnis, while the runner from third came home.
Rookie left-hander Pedro Hernandez started for the Twins and pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits.
Cleveland starter Justin Masterson pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up five runs. Masterson has struggled since starting the season as one of the hottest pitchers in the majors.
After his first three starts Masterson was 3-0 with an 0.41 ERA. However, in his last four starts, Masterson is 1-2 with a 6.48 ERA.
Minnesota's pitchers cooled off three of Cleveland's hottest hitters. Ryan Raburn, who came into the game with 12 hits, including four home runs, in his last 14 at bats, went 0-for-5. Carlos Santana, the American League's leading hitter at .395, went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts. Asdrubal Cabrera went 0-for-4 and saw his 10-game hitting streak snapped.
After falling behind 2-0 after two innings, the Indians scored four unanswered to take a 4-2 lead after five innings. Mark Reynolds broke a 2-2 tie with a two-out two-run home run off Hernandez in the fifth that gave Cleveland a two-run cushion.
Hernandez kept the Cleveland bats quiet for most of the first four innings. The only runs allowed by Hernandez in that span came on a two-run triple by Jason Kipnis in the third inning.
Minnesota had taken a 2-0 lead by scoring single runs off Masterson in the first two innings. Justin Morneau's sacrifice fly in the first inning and Trevor Plouffe's solo home run in the second gave the Twins an early 2-0 lead.
NOTES: Josh Willingham, who leads the Twins in home runs and is tied for the team lead in RBIs, was not in the starting lineup against Masterson. Willingham is 2-for-12 with six strikeouts in his career against the Cleveland right-hander. ... Entering Friday's game Morneau needed one more home run to tie Kirby Puckett (207) for fifth place on the Twins' all-time list. ... Indians first baseman Nick Swisher was expected back in the lineup Friday after missing the previous two games with a sore right shoulder, but he was given an additional day off. Manager Terry Francona said Swisher will be in the lineup on Saturday. ... Outfielder Carrera, claimed off waivers by the Indians from Philadelphia on Thursday, was in uniform for Friday's game.
