The Minnesota Twins try to stretch their winning streak over the Cleveland Indians to five straight games on Wednesday evening in the continuation of a three-game series.
The Twins snapped a three-game slide overall with Tuesday's 6-5 victory in 12 innings, using the speed of Darin Mastroianni to go ahead.
Mastroianni hit a two-out single in the 12th and then stole second base. Alexi Casilla followed with a grounder to the right side of the infield and beat second baseman Jason Kipnis' throw to first. All the while, Mastroianni raced home from second to score and put the Twins ahead.
Casilla scored an insurance run in the frame following consecutive singles and it proved the difference when Glen Perkins allowed a solo homer to Carlos Santana in the bottom of the 12th with two outs before finally finishing off the save.
"Our bullpen was super. They came in and did a really nice job," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Scott Maine was charged with the loss for the Indians, who used a franchise single-game record 10 pitchers and lost for the eighth time in 10 games.
"We fought hard, came back and had the lead in the seventh. We couldn't hold it," Indians manager Manny Acta said.
Minnesota has won four straight and 11 of 13 versus Cleveland since losing the first three meetings of the 2012 season series.
The Twins hope to extend that win streak tonight and get starter Liam Hendriks his first major league victory. The righty has not factored into the decision of his past three outings, keeping him winless in 17 career MLB starts. That includes an 0-7 mark and 6.14 earned run average in 13 games this season.
Hendriks faced the Kansas City Royals on Thursday and allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks over five innings of his club's eventual 4-3 win.
That came one start after the 23-year-old faced the Indians for the second time in his career and yielded four runs over five innings of his team's 7-6 defeat.
Getting the call for the Tribe will be Zach McAllister, who lost his third straight start on Sept. 8 in Minnesota as he was charged with two runs on two hits and three walks in just three innings.
The righty has pitched just 4 2/3 innings in two career starts against the Twins, taking a pair of losses.
McAllister was much sharper on Thursday in a no-decision at the Texas Rangers. He gave up two runs, one earned, on eight hits over six innings. The 24-year- old did not walk a batter and fanned six, making him 5-7 on the season with a 4.15 ERA in 19 starts.
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