Twins rally to split with Tribe

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS

Instead of burying the Twins in the AL Central race, the Cleveland Indians left town with their lead over Minnesota no worse than when the four-game series started.

Danny Valencia singled home the go-ahead run for the second straight day, this time in the eighth inning, and Minnesota beat the Indians 7-5 Wednesday in a sloppy game played on another sweltering day at Target Field.

The Twins salvaged a split in the four-game series and remain five games behind the AL Central-leading Indians, right where they were when the series started. But despite missing a chance to push the Twins to the fringes of the division race after sweeping a doubleheader on Monday, the Indians were glad to hold serve.

“We played four games with them and left it the way we came in, so it’s not like we lost ground either,” Cleveland manager Manny Acta said. “As disappointed as I am that we didn’t win the series, we did play four games here and they didn’t gain any ground.”

For the second straight game, Cleveland’s short-handed outfield played a key role in an Indians loss. With the game tied at 4, Alexi Casilla led off the eighth inning with a fly ball to deep left-center field off Cleveland reliever Tony Sipp (4-2). Left fielder Luis Valbuena and center fielder Ezequiel Carrera converged but neither caught the ball, which bounced off the warning track and into the bullpen for a ground-rule double.

Valbuena, normally a utility infielder, was filling in while Michael Brantley (heat exhaustion) and Travis Buck (headache) are on the mend.

Valencia lined a ball to right field, which just eluded the glove of second baseman Orlando Cabrera, to score Casilla, who had three hits, two runs and an RBI.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka added a two-run single to cap the Twins’ rally.

“If you have an everyday outfielder, I’m sure that [Casilla’s double] probably could have been caught, but we know what we’re dealing with,” Acta said.