NOT QUITE OUT: Overturned homer costs Indians

Photo by: Paul Battaglia

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo

Minnesota Twins' Alexi Casilla (12) is tagged out trying to score from second by Cleveland Indians catcher Lou Marson (6) during the third inning of an baseball game, Sunday, April 24, 2011, in Minneapolis.

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS

The ball just didn’t bounce Michael Brantley’s way on Sunday at Target Field.

Brantley’s three-run homer in the fourth inning was taken off the board upon replay review, a ruling that wound up playing a pivotal role in Cleveland’s 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins.

Brantley’s shot to right field hit the limestone facing and was initially ruled a home run. He rounded the bases for a 4-2 lead, but Twins manager Ron Gardenhire convinced the umpires to review the call.

They did, and summoned Brantley out of the dugout and credited him with a two-run double.

Twins starter Carl Pavano stranded him on second base, and the Indians faltered in the seventh when Jason Kubel hit a two-run double off of Rafael Perez (2-1) to lift the Twins to the win.

If umpires had ruled that the ball caromed off the top of the wall, it would have remained a home run.

But replays showed it hit the corner, and all Brantley and the Indians could do was shrug at their misfortune, a game of inches lost by the narrowest of margins.

“They made the right call,” Brantley said. “I watched the replay two innings later and it definitely wasn’t a home run. It hit the corner of the wall and came back.

“It was unlucky for us, but that’s the way the game goes.”

Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo threw out two runners at home in the third inning to keep the Indians in it, but starter Carlos Carrasco left with tightness in his right elbow after just three innings. He will be re-evaluated in Cleveland.

“He felt from the beginning he couldn’t get loose pretty good and just went out there and said he couldn’t get it loose at all,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “We kind of sensed some of that because his velocity wasn’t where he was in the past. He just couldn’t get it loose.”

Travis Hafner and Orlando Cabrera had two hits a piece, but Cabrera’s error at second base in the seventh inning set up Kubel’s go-ahead hit.

The Indians led 3-2 in the seventh when Alexi Casilla singled and Denard Span reached on Cabrera’s error. Jason Repko bunted them up a base and Kubel hit a changeup high off the wall in right-center field for the lead.

“Obviously, they took advantage of the extra out and their big hitters came through,” Acta said.