Indians try to halt slide in finale with Twins
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Justin Masterson will get his shot to halt the Cleveland Indians' ugly 11-game losing streak on Wednesday when the Tribe try to salvage the finale of a three-game set with the Minnesota Twins and avoid matching the franchise record for futility.
The Indians, who have been outscored 95-36 during the skid, are one loss away from tying the franchise record for consecutive defeats, set from May 7-21, 1931.
After experiencing the worst road trip in their 112-year history as a franchise, the Tribe returned home Monday and did anything but stem the tide, dropping two in a row to the Twins including Tuesday's 7-5 setback.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tsuyoshi Nishioka drove in the go-ahead run during a three-run ninth inning in that one as the Twins sent the Indians to yet another setback.
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."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
Shelley Duncan crushed a two- run homer, Carlos Santana had an RBI double and Asdrubal Cabrera added a run- scoring single for the Indians.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Masterson has struggled mightily recently, allowing a career-high 10 runs in 5 2/3 innings during a 12-5 loss at Minnesota on July 28 and following that with a disastrous performance, giving up 10 hits and seven runs over four innings in a 10-2 setback at Detroit last Friday. The big righty is also just 1-6 with a 4.23 career ERA versus the Twins.
Lefty Brian Duensing, who has also had a tough time recently, will oppose Masterson on the hill. Duensing is just 1-4 with a 6.39 ERA over his last six starts but the lone win came against the Indians on July 29 when he surrendered just one run and five hits over six innings during a 5-1 Twins win.
Overall Duensing is an impressive 5-1 with a 2.81 ERA over 14 appearances -- six starts -- against Cleveland.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Twins have prevailed in seven of their 10 bouts with the Indians this season and took two of three from Cleveland at Progressive Field back in early June.