Indians cough up another late lead

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s sacrifice fly scored the go-ahead run in the ninth inning and the Minnesota Twins rallied for a 7-5 victory over Cleveland, sending the Indians to their 11th straight loss.

Minnesota scored three times off All-Star closer Chris Perez (0-4), who blew his second save opportunity in three days.

The Indians led 5-1 after six innings, but two errors in the seventh and another in the ninth helped Minnesota rally for its fifth win in six games and seven straight victories over Cleveland.

The Indians matched the second-longest skid in franchise history. Cleveland previously dropped 11 straight on four occasions, most recently Sept. 13-24, 2009. The team’s longest losing streak was 12 games from May 7-21, 1931. Cleveland, which hasn’t won since July 26, has been outscored 95-36 in the streak.

Tyler Robertson (1-0) pitched two innings for his first major league win. Glen Perkins pitched the ninth for his seventh save.

Perez struck out Joe Mauer to start the ninth, but Josh Willingham singled. Pinch-runner Darin Mastroianni stole second before Justin Morneau sent a ground ball behind first base. Casey Kotchman got in front of the ball, but it skipped off his glove and rolled into shallow right field and Mastroianni scored to tie the game.

Ryan Doumit followed with a double that moved Morneau to third. Nishioka’s fly ball to left put Minnesota ahead. Brian Dozier followed with an RBI single putting the Twins up by two runs.

Perez, who allowed five runs in the 10th inning in Sunday’s 10-8 loss to Detroit, was finally removed with the bases loaded. The right-hander, who criticized Cleveland fans earlier in the season for not attending games, had no reaction as he was booed while slowly walking off the field.

The Indians took a 5-1 lead into the seventh, but fielding errors by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and second baseman Jason Kipnis helped the Twins score three unearned runs. Ben Revere had an RBI groundout and Morneau’s routine grounder with two outs went through Kipnis’ legs, scoring two more runs.