Will Brennan blasted a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning and drove in three runs overall to help the Cleveland Guardians beat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on Saturday night in Minneapolis, Minn.
Guardians rookie left-hander Logan Allen (3-2) allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings to win his second straight start. He struck out four and walked two.
Emmanuel Clase pitched the ninth for his MLB-leading 18th save.
Andres Gimenez had three hits and scored a run; Steven Kwan had two hits, including a solo home run in the ninth; and Gabriel Arias and Myles Straw each contributed two hits for Cleveland, which lost by one run in each of the first two games of the four-game series.
Brennan’s home run came against Twins right-hander Sonny Gray, who came in with the second-lowest ERA in the MLB (1.94) and had not allowed a home run in his first 11 starts this season.
Gray (4-1) surrendered three runs and a season-high 10 hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out two and didn’t walk a batter.
Jorge Polanco homered for Central-Division leading Minnesota, which had won three straight overall.
After a leadoff single by Arias in the seventh, Brennan lifted Gray’s first-pitch curveball deep over the fence in right field to move the Guardians ahead 3-2.
Polanco led off the first with a home run to left-center field to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead.
Brennan tied the score 1-1 with a fielder’s choice groundout in the second.
The Twins moved back ahead 2-1 in the fifth when Christian Vazquez doubled into the right-field corner with one out, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Donovan Solano’s double into the left-center-field gap.
Jake Karinchak pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for Cleveland, and Enyel De Los Santos followed with a scoreless eighth.
Kwan gave the Guardians some insurance with a solo home run in the ninth, his second of the season, to make it 4-2.
–Field Level Media
