Cleveland Guardians run out of steam, fall short of their 11th straight victory in loss to Twins

The Guardians remain one game shy of a tie for first place in the AL Central, losing to the Minnesota Twins 6-2 on Sunday in a game that puts an end to Cleveland's 10 game win streak, while the Twins are grinding out the last few weeks of their schedule in another lost season.

 The Guardians have been playing their brand of baseball over the last few weeks, with this most recent win streak riding on gritty, relentless offense and phenomenal pitching from our starters and bullpen. That momentum ran out in this series closer, as a loss brings Cleveland back down to Earth as they approach their final two crucial series.  

Kwan was able to hit his 11th home run of the season to put the Guardians up by one, being the beneficiary of a middle of the zone fastball in the top of the first inning. The same inning, Bo Naylor hit a sacrifice fly ball to center field, scoring George Valera from third base.

Joey Cantillo was able to hold off the Twins through the first three innings until second baseman Kody Clemens singled one to left field to score Byron Buxton. 

Through five and a half innings, the score remained 2-1 with both teams playing very similar styles with very minimal offense until Brooks Lee of the Twins powered one to right, center field to score himself and one other run making the score 3-2 in favor of Minnesota.

Just an inning later, Twins third baseman Royce Lewis hit his thirteenth homer off of Hunter Gaddis to score three more runs for the Twins, increasing their lead to four runs against a Guardians team that has been so difficult to score on lately. 

The Twins were able to hold off any attempts at a comeback from Cleveland the rest of the way, putting out the red hot Guardians offense to stop their winning streak at ten games. On the day, Cleveland only had four hits in total off the bats of Kwan with his early homerun, followed by Ramirez, Manzardo, and Rocchio.

Cantillo pitched four innings with five strikeouts, with his relievers unable to hold the Twins scoreless as all four to follow would give up at least a run each.

 With this loss, the Guardians record stands at 84-72, still one game behind the division leading Tigers who stand at 85-71 after the Guardians won three straight games against them this past week. The Guardians are now just a week away from the final game of the season in a series against the Texas Rangers, and with six games remaining, every game is equally important if Cleveland hopes to hoist the division title once again.

 Cleveland’s next series starting Tuesday night happens to be against the Tigers, making this make-or-break final week for the Guardians, as well as Detroit.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. Tuesday night at Progressive Field.