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Twins rally behind Carlos Correa, then fall into third place with 7-6 loss to Guardians

john shipley, pioneer press
·4 min read

Before Friday, the Twins had been sliding steadily for some time, losers of 12 of 19 games since Aug. 20. But with eight games against Cleveland still on the schedule, there was hope.

Round 1 came on Friday, and it went to the Guardians, and it hurt.

Oscar Gonzalez went 4 for 5 with two home runs and five RBIs, and right-hander Cal Quantrill pitched an effective five innings as Cleveland beat the Twins, 7-6, at Target Field.

The loss dropped Minnesota 2½ games behind first-place Cleveland in the American League Central and into third place behind the Chicago White Sox, who rallied past Oakland in the ninth.

The Twins have plenty of time to make up ground, with 25 regular-season games remaining and seven more against Cleveland, which entered Friday’s game losers of seven of 10 games. The Twins have lost 7 of 9 and 13 of their past 20.

But at least Minnesota didn’t go quietly. Down 7-0 in the fifth inning, they rallied behind Carlos Correa, who went 4 for 5 with four RBIs.

With his team down 7-4 with one out in the seventh inning and Luis Arraez at the plate, Baldelli left the dugout and asked home plate umpire Ted Barrett to check reliever James Karinchak for foreign substances. The right-hander had been rotely touching his hair, then mixing his sweat with the rosin bag in between pitches.

“Last thing on Earth that I want to do is go on the field and ask for a player check,” Baldelli said. “It’s not something I’ve ever done; it’s not something I’ve even considered doing until watching this young man pitch.”

Barrett ran his fingers through the right-hander’s hair and checked his glove and uniform and, he told Baldelli, didn’t find anything. Arraez flied out, but next batter Correa hit a curveball into the left-center field bleachers to pull the Twins within 7-6. Jose Miranda followed with a double to left, after Karinchak knocked him down with a pitch near his head, but was stranded at second when Nick Gordon popped out to left.

Emmanuel Clase pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 32nd save in 35 chances. Gio Urshela grounded out to third, Gary Sanchez struck out and Jake Cave struck out to end the game.

“We had some big moments. We came back, we scored some runs, we had good at-bats as the game went on,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Obviously not enough. We’d be talking more enthusiastically about this, in a big way, if we find a way to win a ballgame.”

The Twins may be missing injured star players such as Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco, but Correa — who signed a three-year, $105.3 million contract in March — is picking up the slack all by himself. The two-time all-star shortstop hit a two-out, two-run single in the sixth inning to cut the Twins’ deficit to 7-4 and finished 4 for 5 with four RBIs on Friday and has homered in his past three games.

“I thought today’s game said a lot,” Correa said. “We’re never out of a game. They have a great bullpen and we’re able to bounce back and make it a really close game and make them use their high-leverage guys. There’s a lot of positives that we can take out of today’s game even though we didn’t get the W.”

Since Aug. 26, Correa is hitting .364 with five homers, 11 runs scored and 14 RBIs in 14 games.

“It’s been awesome,” Miranda said. “That’s the type of superstar he is.”

Twins starter Dylan Bundy entered the game with a 2-1 record and 2.17 earned-run average in his previous six starts but was jumped on Friday. After Nick Gordon made a sliding play to snare a foul ball from leadoff hitter Steven Kwan, the Guardians put together four consecutive hits, the last a three-run home run by Gonzalez that put the Guardians up 4-0.

Gonzalez added a two-run blast into the second deck in left in the fifth inning to make it 7-0. Austin Hedges hit a solo homer in the fourth. It was the first time in his career that Bundy (8-7) had ever given up three home runs in an outing.

He was charged with seven earned runs on 12 hits and a walk in 4⅔ innings and struck out three.

“Just poor execution,” Bundy said. “Two or three bad pitches and four or five runs later, plus a couple of add-ons in there, yeah – I think the only pitch that was working was the curveball as far as location.”

Quantrill (12-5) allowed nine hits and walked one but struck seven, six of them with runners in scoring position. Against him, the Twins were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, both hits coming in a two-run fifth inning that cut Minnesota’s deficit to 7-2.

The teams resume their three-game series on Saturday at 6:15 p.m.

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