Guardians halt Twins' winning streak; Baldelli sick
Minnesota's three-game winning streak ended Saturday night with a 3-2 home loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
The Twins were leading 2-1 until Will Brennan unloaded on a Sonny Gray curveball for a two-run homer to put the Guardians in front 3-2 in the seventh inning. Brennan had an RBI double earlier in the game to get Cleveland on the scoreboard.
Bird Boy!#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/55odyb7Sju
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) June 4, 2023
In the ninth, Steven Kwan took Jorge Lopez deep for a solo home run and a 4-2 lead.
Steven Kwan, insurance agent.#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/1PCKPfbHNP
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) June 4, 2023
It was the latest in a string of difficult outings for the 2022 All-Star reliever. In his past six appearances, Lopez has pitched 3.1 innings and allowed nine runs on 10 hits and four walks/hit by pitch. Five of the hits off him in that span were homers. Since May 20, Lopez's ERA has ballooned from 1.31 to 4.56.
The Twins scored their two of runs on a leadoff homer to start the bottom of the first by Jorge Polanco and then an RBI double by Donovan Solano in the fifth.
A leadoff blast from Jorge Polanco gets the @Twins on the board first! pic.twitter.com/x4uvvaFKVa
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 3, 2023
Carlos Correa (foot) and Byron Buxton (ribs) were both held out for the second consecutive game after they left with injuries in Thursday's game against Cleveland.
Note: Twins manager Rocco Baldelli wasn't available at the start of the game due to a stomach illness. He was seen on the bench later in the game but bench coach Jayce Tingler handled the primary managerial duties.
Up next: Twins vs. Guardians, Sunday at 1:10 p.m.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.