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Sports

Gardenhire eyes milestone in Cleveland

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

(SportsNetwork.com) - On the verge of a milestone, Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire hopes his team can finally solve the Cleveland Indians.

Gardenhire enters Saturday's game a victory shy of 1,000 for his managerial career. He would be the fifth active manager to reach the mark, joining Bruce Bochy, Mike Scioscia, Buck Showalter and Terry Francona. Gardenhire will also become just the second Twins skipper to reach the mark, joining Tom Kelly, who went 1,140-1,244 from 1986-2001.

The Twins, who have lost seven straight to the Indians, need to bounce back from Friday's 7-2 defeat.

Nick Swisher clubbed a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning and added an RBI double in a four-run seventh for the Tribe.

Indians starter Danny Salazar settled down after giving up two first-inning runs in the no-decision. He gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out four in 5 2/3 innings. Josh Outman (1-0) picked up the win in relief.

The start of Friday's home opener at Progressive Field was delayed 2 hours, 13 minutes due to rain.

Brian Dozier had three hits for the Twins, who were coming off a series loss in Chicago against the White Sox.

Right-hander Kyle Gibson gets the starting assignment Saturday for the Twins. Gibson went 2-4 with a 6.53 ERA in 10 starts for the Twins last season. The 26-year-old, a 2009 first-round draft pick of the Twins, faced the Indians once during his first MLB season. On August 14, he threw 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

Carlos Carrasco, who split the 2013 campaign between Triple-A Columbus and Cleveland, gets the starting nod Saturday for the Indians. Carrasco spent five different stints on the big league club last year and went 1-4 with a 6.75 ERA in 15 games (7 starts) for the parent club. He's 1-2 with a 3.21 ERA in six career games against the Twins.

Once play got underway Friday, it took the Indians a while to heat up as Minnesota starter Mike Pelfrey (0-1) was perfect through four innings.

Carlos Santana led off the fifth with a double for Cleveland's initial hit, and Yan Gomes ended the shutout the next inning with a leadoff home run to center field.

"(Pelfrey) just kind of handcuffed us, and then (Gomes) stayed on one and a couple hitters later we got the lead," said Cleveland manager Terry Francona.

Lonnie Chisenhall followed with a walk and advanced on a sacrifice bunt before scoring on Swisher's drive to right-center. Pelfrey's outing was done after issuing consecutive walks.

"It just went that quick. I have to talk to (Pelfrey) about it. He just said he lost feel for his pitches," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

Cleveland won 13 of the 19 encounters last season.