Lindor helps Tribe salvage finale against Minnesota

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS

Francisco Lindor drove in three runs and the Cleveland Indians spoiled the big league debut of Jose Berrios with a 6-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.

Carlos Santana had three hits and the Indians avoided losing to the Twins on a walk-off hit for the third consecutive night. Cody Allen picked up his seventh save in seven tries after giving up a game-winning hit to Miguel Sano in the ninth inning on Tuesday.

Berrios (0-1), the top pitching prospect in the Twins farm system, gave up five runs and six hits with five strikeouts in four innings. Byung Ho Park hit his fifth homer of the season and Danny Santana had three hits and an RBI for Minnesota.

Zach McAllister was the victim of one of Minnesota’s walk-off wins when he gave up a towering home run to Oswaldo Arcia in the ninth inning on Monday. But he came through in a huge spot for the Indians on Wednesday night, striking out Park with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning.

Allen also rebounded, striking out Eddie Rosario and Brian Dozier and getting Joe Mauer to fly out to strand the tying run at second base.

Michael Brantley got his first hit of the season for the Indians after missing the first 17 games while recovering from shoulder surgery. Josh Tomlin (3-0) gave up five runs — four earned — and six hits in 51/3 innings for Cleveland.

The start of the game was delayed 35 minutes by rain, and Berrios took the mound with the wind swirling and a chilly 44 degrees.

The 21-year-old Puerto Rican blew away Jason Kipnis with a 95 mph fastball in the first inning and hit 97 on the radar gun early in his outing. He also mixed in a superb breaking ball, but the Indians weren’t intimidated.

Carlos Santana reached base all three times he faced the youngster, Lindor had a two-run double in the third inning and Kipnis chased him from the game with an RBI double in Cleveland’s four-run fifth inning.

Indians DEMOTE Anderson

The Indians optioned right-hander Cody Anderson to Triple-A Columbus.

Cleverland made the move before Wednesday’s series finale against Minnesota.

The team had high hopes for Anderson coming into the season and he could have been in position to make a bigger contribution after starter Carlos Carrasco went down with a hamstring injury. But Anderson is 0-1 with a 7.65 ERA in four starts.

The Indians have off days today and Monday, meaning they don’t have a need for a fifth starter for the next 10 days. Indians manager Terry Francona said the plan is to let Anderson work on some mechanical adjustments.