CLE 2, MIN 0: Carrasco Stars in Dominant Performance

An often-repeated take on the site this season has been that Cleveland isn’t that great of a team. While that may be true, they do have some special players. Their stars are good enough to beat you almost on their own. One day after Jose Ramirez showcased his skills with the bat, Carlos Carrasco dominated the Twins on the mound. He struck out 10 batters over 7 1/3 scoreless innings, holding the Twins to five hits in the process.

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Adalberto Mejia: 64 Game Score, 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 K, 3 BB, 60.8% strikes

Multi-Hit Games: Jorge Polanco (2-for-4)

WPA of 0.1 or higher: Mejia .291

WPA of -0.1 or lower: Garver -.133, Rosario -.137, Morrison -.139, Forsythe -.246

Mike Berardino reported that new Twin Logan Forsythe was working on one hour of sleep. Sounds like a great choice as a pinch hitter in the highest-leverage situation of the game today, huh? With the Twins trailing 1-0 in the eighth, Robbie Grossman drew a 10-pitch walk to put runners at first and second with one out. Forsythe took two strikes, then hit the third pitch from Brad Hand 100.3 mph. Unfortunately, it was a bullet on the ground to Francisco Lindor, who started an inning-ending double play.

The only real scoring chance the Twins had other than that inning was when Joe Mauer hit a two-out triple in the sixth. Cleveland’s first run came on a well-executed play on the bases. With runners at the corners and one out in the sixth, Ramirez broke for second. Mitch Garver fired down to get him out, thanks to an impressive tag by Ehire Adrianza, but Rajai Davis took off for home on the throw and beat the relay back to Garver. Cleveland’s second run came in large part due to an error on Jorge Polanco.

AL Central Standings

CLE 59-48

MIN 49-58 (-10)

DET 47-62 (-13)

CHW 37-69 (-21.5)

KC 33-73 (-25.5)

Next Three Games

Thu: Off

Fri vs. KC, 7:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Heath Fillmyer

Sat vs. KC, 6:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Burch Smith

Sun vs. KC, 1:10 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. TBD

Last Three Games

CLE 6, MIN 2: Deadline Day Ends in Defeat

MIN 5, CLE 4: Awesome Sauce!

BOS 3, MIN 0: Fenway Free Fall Continues

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