CLEVELAND _ Shane Bieber may be the best pitcher in baseball, Rocco Baldelli said before the Twins faced him Tuesday. Rich Hill is the oldest pitcher in the game. But for five innings at Progressive Field, the grunting, grumbling, cussing veteran left-hander outpitched Cleveland's star right-hander.
But they play more than five.
Hill's masterful command of speed and location, not to mention a 74-mph curveball that drove hitters crazy, earned the Twins a rare lead against the major league's ERA leader. But once manager Rocco Baldelli determined that 78 full-effort pitches was enough from the 40-year-old Hill, he turned to the youngest and hardest-throwing pitcher in his bullpen, Jorge Alcala.
And Cleveland made him pay.
Jose Ramirez singled, Francisco Lindor crushed a 400-foot home run, and Cleveland took advantage of the Twins' depleted bullpen to rally for a 4-2 victory, snapping Minnesota's three-game winning streak.
Bieber became the first pitcher in the majors to win six games, and he finished with a 1.35 ERA that's the best in the American League.
"I will openly say that last time we faced him, I certainly shortchanged him by saying he was one of the best young pitchers in baseball," Baldelli said. "This guy might be the best pitcher in baseball."
But Bieber was vulnerable, at least for one troublesome inning. A pair of walks to Miguel Sano and Marwin Gonzalez in the second inning proved costly when Luis Arraez followed with a double to left-center, scoring one. And even after Gonzalez was caught in a rundown on a Ryan Jeffers ground ball, the Twins weren't done: Max Kepler pulled a line drive into right field, scoring Arraez and giving the Twins a rare lead.
It was only the third time in seven starts that Bieber, now 6-0, had fallen momentarily behind, and Hill, after allowing a first-inning run on three singles, seemed to rise to the challenge of protecting it. He allowed only one more hit in his five-inning start, and struck out the last four hitters he faced _ three of them swinging at that slow, tumbling curveball.
On a humid 80-degree night, though, Baldelli decided to cut Hill's outing short at five innings, even though his best lead-protecting relievers had been used extensively over the past three days. The manager chose Alcala, whose 98-mph fastball figured to be a difficult contrast for Cleveland's lineup.
It wasn't. After Lindor slugged a middle-of-the-plate slider into the seats, a rattled Alcala walked Carlos Santana and gave up a double to pinch-hitter Tyler Naquin, extending the lead to two runs _ more than enough for Bieber, who struck out 10 Twins on the night.
The loss narrowed Minnesota's AL Central lead to 1 { games over Cleveland. The teams conclude the three-game series on Wednesday.
