Tribe falls to Twins; Pirates triumph

Carrasco’s arm struck by line drive

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona thought the worst when Carlos Carrasco was struck on the right arm by a line drive.

“From where I was standing I thought it might have hit him in the face so there was a little bit of a sense of relief, but it caught him right kind of on that funny bone,” Francona said after the Indians’ 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday. “He was hurting.”

Carrasco grabbed his arm after being hit by Joe Mauer’s leadoff liner in the second inning and went to his knees on the infield grass.

Although the Indians announced Carrasco was diagnosed with a forearm contusion, Francona said the pitcher was struck on the elbow. During his postgame press conference, Francona said Carrasco was still being examined at a hospital.

The Twins got four hits from Eddie Rosario in their latest victory over the Indians. Rosario hit his 16th homer for the Twins, who have won five straight against the AL Central leaders to improve to 6-2 against Cleveland this season.

Rosario swung at the first pitch in all four of his hits. He also scored four times, drove in two runs and swiped a base. Rosario is batting .471 with six homers and 11 RBIs against Cleveland this season.

Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez homered in the first for Cleveland, which has lost four of five.

Carrasco’s injury forced the Indians to use six relievers, including Adam Plutko, who was scheduled to start today’s series finale.

Pirates 6, Reds 2

PITTSBURGH

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle insists he hasn’t been keeping close tabs of his team’s slide following a hot start. He wasn’t aware the Pirates had dropped eight straight series until someone mentioned it to him earlier in the week.

“If somebody would have told me you’re going to lose eight series, you’d think you’re going to be horrible,” Hurdle said. “We’re not horrible. We’re fighting. And we believe that our best baseball is in front of us.”

It is, at least when the Pirates play the struggling Cincinnati Reds. Josh Harrison hit a two-run homer, Colin Moran and Elias Diaz added solo shots and the Pirates pulled away to push their modest winning streak to three and assuring themselves of their first positive series since taking a two-game set from the Chicago White Sox a month ago.

“We know what’s happened here the past couple weeks,” Harrison said. “Guys are still plugging away and coming ready to show up every day and we’ve had three in a row. We know that doesn’t speak for what’s happened or what will happen. We’ve just got to continue to keep bringing it every day.”

Moran and Diaz both went deep off Luis Castillo (4-8) to give Pittsburgh the lead. Harrison hit his fourth of the season off reliever Austin Brice in the sixth. The Cincinnati native finished 2 for 4 is hitting .368 (14 for 38) against the Reds.

Ivan Nova (4-5) worked through heavy traffic on a day his breaking ball abandoned him to last six innings and pick up his second victory in as many starts since returning from the 10-day disabled list with a sprained right ring finger. Nova allowed only Eugenio Suarez’s 13th home run in the second, striking out three.