Deduno, Twins roll over Masterson, Tribe

Associated Press

minneapolis

Samuel Deduno pitched seven strong innings for his second major league win and Josh Willingham hit his 27th homer of the season, leading the Minnesota Twins to a 12-5 win over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night.

Deduno (2-0) allowed two hits and struck out a career-high six in his fourth big league start. Alexi Casilla drove in four runs for the Twins, who routed the Indians for the second consecutive night after being swept three games in Chicago.

Cleveland starter Justin Masterson (7-9) allowed 10 runs — eight earned — over 5 2-3 innings. The Indians are 6-10 since the All-Star break.

Denard Span, Ben Revere and Willingham each drove in two runs for Minnesota, which has outscored Cleveland 23-5 in the first two games of the weekend series.

Deduno opened the game by giving up a single to Shin-Soo Choo, who scored to give the Indians the lead. But Deduno shut down Cleveland’s lineup after the first, retiring 17 of the next 21 batters he faced.

Willingham’s two-run homer in the fourth gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead. The next inning, Casilla hit a two-run triple. Casilla drove in two more with a double in the sixth, when Minnesota scored five runs to put the game out of reach.

Valencia, recalled from Triple-A Rochester on Friday, hit an RBI double in the seventh to make it 11-1 and snap an 0-for-28 skid in the major leagues.

Carlos Santana hit a two-run homer in the eighth off reliever Tyler Robertson. The Indians added two more in the ninth after Valencia made a throwing error and Luis Perdomo walked Jason Kipnis with the bases loaded. Casey Rien struck out Santana for the final out.

NOTES

Valencia started at third base in place of the injured Trevor Plouffe. “I told him, ‘Relax, have fun, just like you did before, just go play. Play the game.’ That’s what he’s going to do,” manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game. ... Through 101 games, Indians starting pitchers are 36-44 with a 4.85 ERA. Before the game, Indians manager Manny Acta admitted he expected more from his rotation. “My expectations have always been to win, and if you’re expecting to win you can’t be expecting to be bottom five in pitching.