MINNEAPOLIS _ Poor Zach Plesac. In his first start ever against the Twins, Cleveland's second-year right-hander shut down Josh Donaldson, quieted Nelson Cruz, subdued Miguel Sano. He held the top five hitters in the Twins' lineup to one measly single in 14 total at-bats _ and picked that batter, Eddie Rosario, off first base.
Trouble is, the bottom four hitters in the Twins' lineup weren't fooled at all, piling up five hits, three of them homers, against him, and once the usual sluggers showed up, the Twins won in a rout, 8-4 at Target Field.
Marwin Gonzalez and Willians Astudillo, the eighth and ninth hitters in the Twins' lineup, slugged back-to-back homers in the second inning, and seventh batter Byron Buxton connected in the fourth.
In both innings, sixth batter Brent Rooker reached base ahead of the blasts off Plesac, adding to the long-ball run production. Rooker doubled into the left-field corner in the second inning, but his other plate appearance was more stressful; he was hit on his right forearm by a Plesac change-up, an injury that forced him to leave the game.
Once Plesac, who had allowed more than one run only once this season, departed after seven innings, Rosario and Sano added to the homer count, another back-to-back barrage that gave the Twins a season-high five on the night.
The victory, Minnesota's sixth in nine meetings with Cleveland this season, keeps the Twins within one game of the White Sox, who clobbered Detroit, 14-0, Saturday, for the AL Central lead. Just as important, it solidifies the Twins' hold on the fourth seed in the American League, which comes with home-field advantage in the best-of-three first round of the playoffs. At 29-18, the Twins are now 2 { games ahead of 26-20 Cleveland for the league's fourth-best record.
Rich Hill rode the Twins' bottom-up support to his second victory of the season, holding Cleveland to two runs on four hits over five innings. Hill struck out a season-high six batters, and allowed only one hit through the first three innings.
Jose Ramirez changed that in the fourth, connecting on a long home run to left-center, and Carlos Santana doubled and scored on an Oscar Mercado.
Cleveland scored again off Matt Wisler in the sixth, when Buxton crashed into the center field wall trying to catch Jordan Luplow's long fly ball. The impact jarred the ball loose, and Luplow ran out an RBI triple, scoring Santana. But Wisler, celebrating his 28th birthday, stranded Luplow on third base by retiring Oscar Mercado and striking out Roberto Perez.
The back-to-back home runs made a little Twins' history; only once before had the team recorded two sets of back-to-back homers in the same game. On June 9, 1966, Rich Rollins and Zoilo Versalles connected against the Kansas City A's, and Tony Oliva and Don Mincher repeated the feat in the same inning.
And the last time the Twins' eighth and ninth hitters went back-to-back? It was Clete Thomas and Eduardo Escobar in 2013 against the White Sox.
