Indians fall, 5-1, to Twins, Morneau
CLEVELAND (AP) — Justin Morneau and Nick Blackburn just love facing the Cleveland Indians.
Morneau homered and Blackburn pitched seven solid innings in the Minnesota Twins’ 5-1 victory on Friday night.
It was the first time in 17 games this season that the Twins didn’t trail.
“I hate it,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said with a laugh. “It was more fun the other way. We love being behind.”
Morneau hit Fausto Carmona’s first pitch of the fourth into the seats in right to give the Twins a 2-1 lead, and also drove in a run with a fielder’s choice in the seventh. Morneau batted .351 (13-for-37) with a homer, five doubles and 10 RBIs in nine games at Progressive Field last season.
“I missed the pitch with Morneau,” Carmona said. “I missed inside a little.”
Three nights after drawing 11,408 fans — the lowest total in the history of the ballpark that opened in 1994 — Friday’s game attracted 20,215. Many of them showed up for a postgame fireworks show.
Approximately 17,000 fans jammed nearby Quicken Loans Arena to watch the Cavaliers’ NBA playoff game in Detroit on the arena’s television screens. The biggest cheer of the night at the ballpark came when the Cavaliers’ 79-68 win was shown in the scoreboard.
Blackburn (1-1), winless in his first three starts, allowed one run and six hits. The right-hander was 3-0 and allowed four earned runs over 272‚Ñ3 innings in four starts against Cleveland last season.
“I’m not sure,” Blackburn said when asked why he has been so successful against the Indians. “They’re a fastball-hitting team. They’re pretty aggressive. I assume that’s what it was.”
Carmona (1-3) allowed five runs in six-plus innings.
The win snapped a four-game road losing streak for the Twins, who were outscored 31-5 in that stretch.
Blackburn got some help from pitching coach Rick Anderson after the Indians scored in the third inning. Asdrubal Cabrera started the rally with a one-out double and scored on Grady Sizemore’s single. After Mark DeRosa followed with a single, Anderson went to the mound and told Blackburn to start using his breaking pitches to keep the hitters off balance.