CLEVELAND _ Trevor Bauer caught the ball from catcher Roberto Perez in the fourth inning on Saturday with a snap of the wrist, emphasizing that he had just struck out the Twins' Max Kepler.
Unfortunately for Bauer _ and fortunately for the Twins _ the damage had already been done.
Kepler catapulted Bauer pitches in the first and second innings into the seats in right-center field, sending the Twins on their way to a 6-2 victory over the Indians while extending Kepler's ownership of Bauer.
Cleveland's Bobby Bradley hit his first major league homer in the seventh, a 457-foot shot off of Tyler Duffy, but the Twins got a two-run double from Jake Cave in the eighth and a sacrifice fly from Marwin Gonzalez in the ninth to provide a cushy lead. The Twins have won the first two games of the three-game series against the American League Central rival and send Jose Berrios to the mound on Sunday with a chance to sweep.
The only negative for the Twins on Saturday was that Byron Buxton had to leave the game after the eighth inning. He raced in to make a diving catch of Oscar Mercado's sinking fly ball but his face hit the turf hard as he landed.
It comes after Kepler, who has twice hit three home runs in games at Progressive Field, took aim at one of baseball's craftier pitchers.
On June 6 at Progressive Field, Kepler hit home runs in his first three plate appearances against Bauer. With the homers on Saturday, Kepler tied Carlos Delgado and Frank Howard as the only players in the expansion era to hit home runs in five consecutive at-bats against the same pitcher.
It gets better, though.
Delgado and Howard did it over parts of two seasons. Kepler is the only player in Major League Baseball history to hit five consecutive homers against the same pitcher in the same season.
On June 6, Kepler went deep on a change-up, then a slider, then a fastball. On Saturday, he had the same understanding and preparedness for what was coming his way. In the first inning, Kepler got a 1-0 fastball from Bauer and didn't miss it, launching it into the seats for a leadoff homer. The Twins loaded the bases in that inning but failed to add on, which could make things hairy later on.
Jake Cave led off the second with a homer, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead. Kepler came to the plate two batters later. This time, Bauer started him off with a knuckle curve for a strike. Bauer tried to repeat the pitch, but Kepler was ready for it and lifted it to the same area of the seats for a 3-0 Twins lead as boos tumbled from the stands.
Kepler is now batting .361 against Bauer in his career with five home runs and nine RBIs.
Jose Ramirez homered in the bottom of the inning off of Twins right-hander Jake Odorizzi. That score held for a while, as Bauer got locked in and tormented the Twins with knuckle curveballs. He threw 29 of them on Saturday, second only in usage to his fastball, and got 10 swinging strikes off of them. In six innings, Bauer struck out 10 Twins. He also threw 110 pitches.
Odorizzi was sharp early but not so much late, as he needed 55 pitches to get through the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, Well, he failed to get through the sixth. He had two on and one out with 20 pitches thrown in the inning when Twins manager Rocco Baldelli replaced him with Ryne Harper. Harper got Carlos Santana to fly out then struck out Jason Kipnis with 70-mph curveball to end the inning. Harper stepped off the mound yelling and pumping his hands.
