Jorge Polanco delivered his third walk-off hit in the last four games as the Minnesota Twins posted an 11-inning, 8-7 win over the visiting Cleveland Indians in the rubber match of a three-game series on Wednesday.
Polanco's one-out, bases-loaded single off Justin Garza (2-1) scored Ryan Jeffers, who began the inning as the automatic runner at second base.
Miguel Sano homered and drove in three runs for the Twins, who rallied from a 5-2 deficit to win for the sixth time in their last eight games. Sano added a two-RBI double during the team's five-run fifth inning.
Minnesota used eight pitchers in the win, including Danny Coulombe (3-1), who pitched a scoreless 11th inning.
Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes each homered for Cleveland, which has dropped six of its last nine games.
Cleveland tied the game with two runs in the ninth off Alex Colome. Myles Straw lined a leadoff double and scored on Jose Ramirez's one-out double. Ramirez moved to third on Reyes' groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
Ramirez began the scoring with a two-out homer in the first off Lewis Thorpe, who allowed two runs over 1 1/3 innings before exiting with left shoulder soreness.
The Twins pulled even in the bottom half on Polanco's run-scoring single off Zach Plesac, who surrendered six runs (five earned) over 4 2/3 innings.
Amed Rosario's RBI double gave Cleveland a 4-1 lead in the top of the fourth before Sano began Minnesota's comeback with a 475-foot blast to begin the bottom half of the inning.
Reyes, who entered the game with one hit in his last 30 at-bats, answered with a leadoff homer in the fifth off Juan Minaya to push Cleveland's lead to 5-2.
Minnesota pulled ahead with five runs on six hits in the bottom of the fifth. Luis Arraez singled in a run with two outs and Sano followed with a two-run double off Plesac, who was replaced by Alex Young.
Sano then scored from second on Nick Gordon's single and Andrelton Simmons capped the rally with a run-scoring ground-rule double.
Rosario and Ramirez had two hits apiece for Cleveland, which went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
--Field Level Media
Cleveland | Minnesota | |
Zach Plesac | Player | Lewis Thorpe |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
4.2 | IP | 1.1 |
2 | Strikeouts | 1 |
6 | Hits | 1 |
9.64 | ERA | 13.50 |
Cleveland | Minnesota | |
Jose Ramirez | Player | Miguel Sano |
2 | Hits | 2 |
2 | RBI | 3 |
1 | HR | 1 |
6 | TB | 6 |
.333 | Avg | .500 |