Twins fall to Guardians on Ramírez home run off Duran
CLEVELAND – There was live music playing outside Progressive Field on Friday evening and postgame fireworks were already on the schedule.
José Ramírez became the life of the party with a go-ahead solo home run off Twins closer Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning, launching a curveball into the right field seats. The Twins snapped their scoreless drought, but they couldn't end their losing streak, which was extended to four games after their 3-2 loss to the American League Central-leading Cleveland Guardians.
It was the first run and just the third hit Duran allowed in eight appearances this season.
After Ramírez gestured to his teammates in the Guardians dugout and started his home run trot, the announced crowd of 30,121 joined together to chant his first name.
The Twins rallied from a one-run deficit in the top of the eighth inning. After Jose Miranda lined a single to left field, his pinch-runner, Austin Martin, swiped second base when Willi Castro was called out on strikes on a pitch that was well off the plate. With two outs, the Guardians brought in lefty reliever Tim Herrin and the Twins countered with righthanded-hitting Kyle Farmer to pinch-hit for Edouard Julien.
Farmer, who was batting only .143, thumped a two-strike curveball into the left-center gap for a game-tying RBI double.
The Twins produced only two hits in 6 2/3 innings against Guardians starter McKenzie, who threw only 48 of his 91 pitches for strikes. They drew four walks and had one batter reach on a catcher's interference, but they grounded into a double play in each of the first three innings.
Alex Kirilloff, who was struggling as much as any Twins hitter, made the first hit count with a solo home run to begin the third inning. Kirilloff entered Friday with one hit in his last 29 at-bats, sparking questions about whether he was playing through an injury. When he saw an elevated fastball from McKenzie, he crushed it an estimated 402 feet to right field for his third home run of the season.
BOXSCORE: Cleveland 3, Twins 2
Kirilloff's homer was the first run the Twins scored since Ryan Jeffers hit a leadoff homer Tuesday, ending the fourth-longest scoring drought in team history, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The Twins had a 34-inning scoreless streak from 2014-15, and they were one inning shy from matching the longest drought in a single season (1978 and 1964).
Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson did his best to help a struggling offense, permitting four hits and one run in 5 1/3 innings
Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez opened the sixth inning with an infield single, and some wackiness followed. José Ramírez initially grounded out to shortstop Carlos Correa, but Cleveland challenged whether Correa violated the shift rule by lining up with one of his feet behind the second-base bag.
By rule 5.02(c), middle infielders must have both feet "entirely on each side of second base." After a lengthy replay review, Correa was in an illegal position and the Guardians were granted a do-over. It was the first shift violation this season and the fifth since MLB implemented rules on shifts before the start of last season.
Ramírez struck out — Woods Richardson's last batter — and Giménez was later thrown out at the plate on a fielder's choice ground ball, so it was all for naught. Except two batters later, after Steven Okert replaced Woods Richardson, designated hitter David Fry golfed a low slider over the left-field fence for a go-ahead, two-run homer.
