MINNEAPOLIS – The Cleveland Indians still consider themselves in the AL Central race. It’s not the race they hoped for with Detroit having wrapped up the division title, but the mentality seems to be working so far.
“We already kind of yesterday put that behind us and knew that eventually it was going to come,” Indians manager Manny Acta said Saturday after his team jumped on Minnesota early and beat the Twins 10-4.
“Decided yesterday we were going to have our own little race here and try to finish second.”
Carlos Santana tied a club record with his 25th home run to help the Indians go up 8-0 early, and Jeanmar Gomez pitched effectively into the seventh before leaving with an injury.
The Indians, leading Chicago for the second spot in the Central, sent Minnesota to its seventh straight loss.
Gomez (4-2) won his fourth straight start since being recalled from Triple-A Columbus on Aug. 30. He allowed two runs and seven hits over 6 2⁄3 innings.
“We were able to score enough runs early in the game to give a nice comfortable lead to Gomez so he could settle down, and he took advantage of it,” Acta said.
Gomez was one out away from getting out of the seventh when he came up limping trying to make a play on Ben Revere’s bouncer up the middle. He walked off the field and was relieved by Josh Judy.
Gomez said later he felt like he “almost” twisted his right knee, but was all right and anticipated making his next start.
The Indians scored seven early runs off Anthony Swarzak (3-7). Already up 3-0 in the second, Cleveland got a two-run triple from Jason Kipnis before Santana lined a 3-2 pitch from Swarzak an estimated 414 feet into the right-field seats. Santana has four homers in his last five games.
Santana’s 25 home runs tie Victor Martinez for the most by a Cleveland switch-hitter. Fittingly, Santana said he’s worn Martinez’s No. 41 throughout his life.
Lester Oliveros relieved Swarzak and gave up an RBI double to Matt LaPorta before the Twins finally got out of the second.
“He’s been throwing the ball really well for us,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He made mistakes today and they pounded him early.”
“We had a little talk, I think it was kind of to go out with some pride, to play hard through the finish line, to not look back on the last month and not have that be the way that we remember the season,” Kipnis said.
Minnesota has lost 12 of 13. Chris Parmelee had three RBIs and three hits, including a two-run homer in the Twins eighth that made it 8-4.
TODAY
• WHO: Cleveland at Minnesota
• TIME: 2:10 p.m.
• WHERE: Target Field, Minneapolis
• PITCHERS: Masterson (11-10, 3.20 ERA) vs. Pavano (8-12, 4.50)
• TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio, Ch. 3; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM
