CLEVELAND — Eddie Rosario didn't even bother to turn and watch, let alone chase, the ball soaring over his head.
Zombie-like, the former Twins outfielder stood, as Rob Refsnyder's home run carried about halfway up the left-field bleachers for the breakthrough score in the third inning.
By the end of the next inning, the Twins had already solidified their biggest win of the season and first shutout in nearly a month, beating Cleveland, 10-0, with all the offensive life the home team lacked. And the Cleveland players actually had a full night's sleep in their own beds to prepare for Friday's meeting at Progressive Field.
The Twins drove the 40 minutes or so from Anaheim up to Los Angeles on Thursday night after the doubleheader, catching a red-eye flight across the country to land around 4:30 a.m. Eastern time. Another brief hotel-room snooze followed at 5:30 a.m. before the players into the park sometime after 3 p.m. for optional batting practice.
"Most guys are just showing up for the show-and-go just to get out there, stretch out and get your body ready, take care of whatever you need to and play the game," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said pregame of the team's straightforward schedule. "It was pretty much a day of trying to get our players as much [rest] as we could."
But instead of a sleepy and plodding game, the Twins amped up their adrenaline through a nine-run, five-hit fourth inning.
Cleveland fielded three pitchers to face 13 batters in that lengthy inning, with starter Triston McKenzie pulled after walking four, adding to his MLB-leading number of walks this year with 30.
His team could have saved him two of those walks if it had completed what looked to be a sure double play from Trevor Larnach's ground ball with the bases loaded. Instead, shortstop Amed Rosario's throw from second to first was low and bounced off McKenzie covering at first and into the camera well.
Two runs scored on that play. And reliever Phil Maton gave up a base hit line drive to Andrelton Simmons on his first pitch to score another. Maton also walked in a run before facing Max Kepler, who had started the inning with a walk against McKenzie.
Kepler smacked a two-out, two-run double to right field before Alex Kirilloff, in his first game back from a wrist injury, hit an RBI single to left. Miguel Sano continued the run with his own RBI double.
That's when Cleveland finally brought in Jean Carlos Mejia in his MLB debut to end the inning, striking out Larnach.
Randy Dobnak started for the first time this season and pitched through six scoreless innings. He gave up only three hits and two walks, striking out five. After beginning the season in the bullpen as a long reliever and struggling, Dobnak regained his starting form down in Class AAA St. Paul and tossed 93 pitches Friday.
Dobnak (1-3), though, had no excuse to not be bright-eyed and wide awake. He flew to Cleveland from Minnesota on Thursday, skipping the time-zone-spanning first leg of the road trip.
Jorge Alcala pitched a clean seventh inning. Luke Farrell found himself in a bit of trouble in the eighth, allowing two hits and putting two runners in scoring, but was able to keep the shutout going for Dobnak. He carried that through the ninth with a one-two-three inning.
The Twins improved to 16-28, though they are still 10 games out of the American League Central lead. Cleveland fell to 23-19 and is three games away from the Chicago White Sox atop the division.
