CLEVELAND (AP) — Kody Clemens had three hits and Kendry Rojas earned his first major league win with a strong outing in relief as the Minnesota Twins held off the Cleveland Guardians 5-4 on Sunday.
Brooks Lee hit a tiebreaking single in a four-run fifth inning for the Twins, who took two of three in the series from their AL Central rivals.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt was sent home hours before the first pitch due to lingering respiratory issues. Tony Arnerich filled in as acting manager.
Making his second career appearance, Rojas (1-0) struck out five and walked three over 3 1/3 innings. He allowed one run and five hits.
The 23-year-old left-hander from Cuba entered to begin the second inning after opener Andrew Morris worked a 1-2-3 first.
Yoendrys Gómez pitched a perfect ninth for his third big league save and second this season.
Brayan Rocchio went 4 for 4 and scored twice for Cleveland, setting a career high for hits. Gavin Williams (5-3) gave up five runs and 10 hits in six innings. He struck out six and walked one.
Clemens doubled and scored on a wild pitch to give the Twins a 1-0 lead in the third. José Ramírez tied it in the bottom half with an RBI single that scored Rocchio.
Clemens scored on Lee’s single in the fifth to put Minnesota back in front. Royce Lewis had an RBI double before Josh Bell and Austin Martin each added a run-scoring single to make it 5-1.
Cleveland got RBI singles from Angel Martínez and Chase DeLauter to narrow the gap, and DeLauter trimmed it to 5-4 with an RBI groundout in the eighth.
The Twins improved to 7-20 in their last 27 one-run games against Cleveland.
Up next
Twins: Begin a three-game series at home against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.
Guardians: LHP Joey Cantillo (2-1, 3.43 ERA) starts Monday night against the Los Angeles Angels in the opener of a three-game set.
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