Donovan Solano’s two-out, bases loaded triple in the eighth inning was the crushing blow in Cleveland Tuesday night, and as the ball skipped under Myles Straw’s glove and rolled all the way to the wall, so too did the Guardians’ hopes in the AL Central Division.
The error allowed three runs to score as the Twins put up five runs in the inning, turning a tie ballgame into an 8-3 lead.
Max Kepler opened up scoring in the first, driving in Royce Lewis on an RBI double that set up Carlos Correa to drive in Kepler one pitch later.
Cleveland tied the game in the third with a two-run Bo Naylor home run and the Guardians took the lead with a sac fly in the bottom of the fifth, only for Christian Vazquez to respond with a solo home run in the top of the sixth.
The Twins batters had been hitting the cover off the ball all night only to be frustrated by unlucky placement.
But that changed in the eighth as the Twins racked up five runs starting with a Jorge Polanco sac fly off Trevor Stephan, who then allowed another run on a wild pitch.
Solano then put the game, and possibly the AL Central, out of reach with his bases clearing triple.
Sonny Gray allowed three earned runs in six innings of work while Griffin Jax, Caleb Thielbar and Emilio Pagan allowed just one-hit over the final three innings in the Twins' 8-3 win.
Depending on what happens in the series and season finale between Minnesota and Cleveland on Wednesday, the Twins will depart Ohio with a 6 or 8-game lead the division.
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