MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Taj Bradley allowed one run and struck out 10 in seven innings, Kody Clemens had two hits and an RBI, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Bradley (8-3), who set a career best with 11 strikeouts in his last outing July 1 at Houston, had swing-and-miss stuff all night, registering a career-high 25 swinging strikes. He allowed three hits and walked none, winning for the third time in his last four starts.
Andrew Morris pitched a perfect eighth inning, while Taylor Rogers and Yoendrys Gómez combined on a scoreless ninth for the Twins, who have won six of their last eight games
Rhys Hoskins homered for the Guardians, who lost their third in a row.
Joey Cantillo (7-4) pitched five innings, giving up two runs — both unearned — on six hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
The Guardians opened the scoring in the second on Hoskins’ solo home run. But the Twins scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning.
Clemens led off with a ground ball that skipped between second baseman Travis Bazzana’s legs for an error. Ryan Kreidler followed with a chopper to shortstop that a charging Brayan Rocchio fielded cleanly. However, Rocchio’s toss to second base was late and off-target, allowing Clemens to reach safely.
Luke Keaschall then hit a grounder to first baseman Kyle Manzardo, who looked to second base before flipping to Cantillo covering first. But the toss was too late to beat Keaschall, whose single loaded the bases. The Twins scored on Austin Martin’s sacrifice fly and a two-out single by Brooks Lee to take a 2-1 lead.
With two outs in the seventh, Clemens lined a triple into the gap in left center field, scoring Josh Bell.
Up next
The Twins send LHP Connor Prielipp (2-5, 4.96 ERA) to the mound against Cleveland RHP Slade Cecconi (4-6, 4.44) on Wednesday.
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