Indians’ woes grow with another road loss

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS

TJ House made strides toward rectifying his early-season struggles. It just wasn’t enough to hold off the Twins.

After giving up six runs in 11/3 innings in his season debut against Detroit, House allowed five runs in 52/3 innings on Sunday in a 7-2 defeat to Minnesota.

Cleveland has lost six of its last eight games, and House dropped to 0-2 with a 14.14 ERA.

“A lot of things are frustrating right now,” he said. “Just not getting ahead of guys, long innings, kind of constantly battling from behind, putting ourselves in good positions, leadoff walks. There’s a lot of things that aren’t going the way I’d like them to.”

House issued leadoff walks in the second and fourth innings, the first of which led to Minnesota’s 3-0 lead and the latter helped extend Minnesota’s margin to 4-1.

Minnesota loaded the bases in the second on a walk, double and hit batter. Oswaldo Arcia’s sacrifice fly, Eduardo Escobar’s RBI single and Shane Robinson’s run-scoring grounder, which was misplayed by shortstop Jose Ramirez, built a 3-0 lead.

Torii Hunter broke open the game with a three-run homer in the sixth, his first home run for the Twins since 2007. Hunter, who rejoined the Twins this year after five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels and two with Detroit, hit a three-run homer in the sixth off former Minnesota pitcher Anthony Swarzak for a 7-1 lead.

“I’m just happy to get the home run out of the way in a Twins uniform in Target Field,” Hunter said, flashing his charismatic smile.

Making his second start since coming up from the minors when Ricky Nolasco went on the disabled list, Trevor May (1-1) allowed one run and four hits in six innings. With Ervin Santana serving a drug suspension, May is bidding to remain in the rotation when Nolasco returns from elbow inflammation.

May struck out four. Cleveland’s lone threat against him came in the third, when Michael Bourn, Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley strung together three straight two-out singles.