Pavano beats former team as Twins turn back Tribe

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Carl Pavano pitched seven innings to beat his former team, Joe Mauer had four hits and the Minnesota Twins defeated the Cleveland Indians 7-2 on Saturday.

Clinging to a 3-2 lead, Pavano (14-7) struck out Shelley Duncan to get out of a bases-loaded jam on his final pitch of the night. He allowed seven hits, struck out six and walked four on the one-year anniversary of being traded for minor leaguer Yohan Pino.

Pavano also improved to 9-1 with a 2.62 ERA in his last 12 starts as the Twins earned their 11th win in 14 games.

J.J. Hardy hit a tiebreaking RBI single off Fausto Carmona (11-9) in the top of the seventh. Mauer went 4 for 5 but Minnesota lost second baseman Alexi Casilla to a left ankle injury in the third.

Casilla scored from second on a single by Mauer. As he slid home ahead of the throw, Casilla appeared to jam his ankle into the left foot of catcher Chris Gimenez. Trevor Plouffe replaced Casilla in the field in the bottom half.

Plouffe broke an 0-for-18 drought with his first career homer in the eighth. The opposite-field line drive into the seats in right-center made it 4-2.

Casilla had a career-high four RBIs Friday night. He has started in place of Orlando Hudson, on the disabled list since July 24 with a right oblique strain. Hudson is eligible to be activated Sunday.

Jason Kubel put Minnesota ahead 1-0 by hitting his 15th homer in the second. That gave Kubel a .400 average (12 for 30) with three homers in his career against Carmona. The next time up, Kubel was grazed in the midsection by an inside fastball from Carmona, but he went down to first without incident.

Cleveland tied it in the fourth. Shin-Soo Choo singled with one out and scored on a two-out double into the right-field corner by Jordan Brown, who had three hits. It was Brown’s first career RBI. He scored on Matt LaPorta’s sharp single to left.