MINNEAPOLIS _ The record is still lousy, the worst in baseball. But a decent number of Twins fans keep showing up at Target Field, an announced 23,584 of them Saturday night. They seem to enjoy rooting for rookies.
James Beresford received a standing ovation for recording the first hit of his career, Max Kepler earned a loud roar for a game-saving diving catch, and Miguel Sano _ OK, he's not a rookie, but he's only 23 _ smashed a 400-foot homer into the Cleveland bullpen.
But when the rookies needed help finishing off their first victories over the Indians in six games, it was the veterans who came through.
Brian Dozier lined a two-out single in the 12th inning, moved to second on a balk by Joe Colon and scored when Joe Mauer dropped a full-count line drive into right-center, earning the Twins a 2-1 victory at Target Field.
The Twins offense was mostly absent on Saturday; besides Sano's second-inning homer, his 23rd of the season, they collected only a half-dozen hits, all singles. But for a change, the pitching did its part, making those meager runs enough to win. The Twins held an opponent to fewer than four runs for only the third time in 17 games, with left-hander Hector Santiago doing the bulk of the work, giving up only one run over seven innings. Santiago's two best performances for the Twins have both come against AL Central-leading Cleveland.
Two weeks after holding the Indians scoreless into the seventh inning in an eventual 1-0 loss, Santiago allowed the first batter he faced Saturday night to score _ then not another. But once again, he could not be credited with a victory, because his team's offense mustered only one run off Cleveland pitching.
Santiago appeared shaky early on, giving up three hits in the first inning and three walks in the second. But he worked out of trouble, stranding three runners in the first by inducing a pair of fly balls, and strangling another in the second by getting a well-timed double-play grounder. From there, the lefthander faced 17 batters and retired 15 before handing over a 1-1 tie to the Twins bullpen, which did its job as well. Five Twins relievers held Cleveland scoreless over the final four innings, and only once did the Indians come close to scoring.
But Kepler snuffed that threat with some well-timed defense. With two runners on base and two outs, Rajai Davis sliced a medium-depth fly ball just inside the right-field foul line. Kepler accelerated as the ball came down, and slid on his stomach as he caught the ball, ending the inning.
For Beresford, the franchise-record 49th player used by the Twins this season, Saturday's game was a night he will never forget. Signed by the Twins almost a decade ago, Beresford has accumulated a whopping 4,383 minor league plate appearances, but his ground ball to first base in the second inning was his first in a major league games.
"I told him when he came up that I was going to try to get him a chance to play up here," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "I didn't say a lot, but we'll try to find a time or two, if not more, where he might get an opportunity to get some at-bats and play on the field."
The crowd was clearly anticipating Beresford's big moment, and it came as he led off the seventh inning against Cleveland reliever Shawn Armstrong. Beresford took a strike and a ball, and fouled off three pitches before ripping an 88-mph cutter up the middle, his first major-league hit. The crowd stood and cheered for the Australia native. But after he was sacrificed to second, his chance at scoring the go-ahead run dried up after the Indians intentionally walked Dozier. Mauer was called out on a close third strike, and Jorge Polanco popped up to short left field, ending the threat.
