It may have come in the 10th inning of a pitchers’ duel where neither team had scored a run through nine, but according to Brian Dozier the Minnesota Twins’ 11th straight loss, this time to the Cleveland Indians, felt no worse than the first ten.
“We definitely played better. Fine. But it’s a loss,” Dozier told the Star Tribune. “We’ve got 82 of them now, and that’s way too many. It’s not even September. So it’s just another loss.”
Indians starter Trevor Bauer, who had started in four consecutive losses to the Twins, gave up five hits in six innings. Hector Santiago, who had an ERA above 10.00 in his first four starts in Minnesota, gave up three hits in 6.1 innings pitched.
“We didn’t put up anything offensively,” Santiago told the Pioneer Press. “I guarantee those guys over there, our offense, are like, ‘Man, our pitchers did their job tonight and we kind of let them down.’”
After Ryan Pressly pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, Brandon Kintzler gave up the winning run to Jason Kipnis in the 10th inning after throwing 1.2 innings of relief.
“It was down, almost on the ground,” Kintzler told the Pioneer Presss. His 28th and final pitch was a 1-0 sinker to Kipnis. “Good piece of hitting. He beat me on my best pitch. What are you going to do?”
“Kintz kind of went over and above. He hadn’t pitched that much lately, but goes out there for a third inning,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “It looked like he got a sinker down, his bread and butter, but Kipnis is a good hitter and found a way to get it to the outfield and win the game.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Associated Press]
