Cleveland, OH – The Cleveland Indians continue to find ways to lose.
Tsuyoshi Nishioka drove in the go-ahead run during a three-run ninth inning, as the Minnesota Twins sent the Indians to their 11th consecutive loss on Tuesday with a 7-5 win at Progressive Field.
One outing removed from blowing a three-run, ninth-inning lead in Detroit on Sunday, Chris Perez (0-4) coughed it up again as the Tribe tied their longest losing streak since dropping 11 straight from September 13-24, 2009.
"These are unacceptable performances, and they're coming at the worst time for us," Perez said. "We just have to fight through it, it's the only thing you can do."
Josh Willingham got the rally started with a one-out single and pinch-runner Darin Mastroianni swiped second before scoring the tying run on a grounder to first by Justin Morneau that kicked off the first base bag and into short right field.
Ryan Doumit then ripped a ball into the right-center field gap for a double and Morneau trotted home with the go-ahead score on a sacrifice fly. Brian Dozier followed with a single to bring home Doumit.
"We had a couple things go our way there," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of the ninth inning. "We got a bad hop off the bag and guys had some quality at-bats there.
Tyler Robertson (1-0) earned his first major league win with two scoreless innings and Glen Perkins nailed down his fourth save of the year with a perfect ninth inning for the Twins, who have won five of their last six games.
Doumit finished with three hits and Ben Revere went 1-for-5 to extend his hitting streak to 21 games for the Twins, while Shelley Duncan crushed a two- run homer, Carlos Santana had an RBI double and Asdrubal Cabrera added a run- scoring single for the Indians.
The Twins took the lead in their first at-bat with a run on an RBI single up the middle by Morneau, but the Indians got it right back in the home portion of the frame courtesy of an RBI groundout by Shin-Soo Choo.
The Indians extended their lead to 4-1 in the second. Michael Brantley led off the frame with a walk and trotted the rest of the way around the diamond when Duncan waited on a hanging breaking ball and crushed it over the wall in left. Jack Hannahan followed with a single and scored via a Cabrera single.
Santana doubled home Jason Kipnis with two outs in the sixth to extend the lead to 5-1, but the Twins rallied for three runs in the seventh to cut the deficit to one.
Dozier started the frame with a double and Jamey Carroll reached on an error by Cabrera. Tony Sipp came on in relief of starter Cory Kluber and got Denard Span to pop out, but surrendered a run-scoring groundout to Revere.
Joe Mauer walked and Willingham was plunked by Joe Smith to load the bases. Morneau then hit a hard ground ball to second that went clean through the legs of Kipnis, allowing Carroll and Mauer to score.
Game Notes
The Indians are one loss away from tying the franchise record for consecutive defeats, set from May 7-21, 1931...The Indians have been outscored, 95-36, during the 11-game skid...Kluber allowed three runs -- one earned on six hits and three walks over six innings...Twins starter Samuel Deduno surrendered four runs on five hits and five walks in four innings...Minnesota went 2- for-15 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base.
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