CLEVELAND – The Minnesota Twins lost both games of a doubleheader to the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, all but ending their chase for an AL Central championship. But if they succumbed meekly in the first game, a 5-1 defeat, they did everything they possibly could to stave off the sweep in the finale — all 15 innings of it.
But Guardians shortstop Amed Rosario, who drove in six of Cleveland's 12 runs on the day, hit a hard grounder that Twins shortstop Jermaine Palacios misplayed, and Austin Hedges scored the winning run in Cleveland's epic 7-6 victory at Progressive Field.
Combined with a noncompetitive Cleveland victory in the afternoon game, the Twins' seventh and eighth consecutive defeats to Cleveland drop them seven games back of the AL Central leaders — believe it or not, these teams were tied less than two weeks ago — and even a miraculous turnaround in their fortunes over the final two games here would leave them five games back with 15 to play, in a race they must win outright to qualify for the postseason.
