Twins avoid sweep in Cleveland, pick up first win since trade deadline

Things got dicey at the end of Sunday's game, but the Twins avoided a sweep in Cleveland and secured their first victory since their already-infamous trade deadline fire sale. They scored four runs in the top of the first inning and held off a ninth-inning rally in a 5-4 win at Progressive Field.

With the Twins' bullpen depleted by trades, Michael Tonkin got the ball with a 5-2 lead in the ninth, seeking his fourth career save and his first in a Twins uniform. He was unable to deliver. Tonkin walked the leadoff man and then gave up a pair of hits, making it a one-run game.

Instead, it was veteran newcomer Erasmo Ramirez who got the job done. Ramirez entered the game with one out and induced weak flyouts from Daniel Schneeman and Jose Ramirez to close out a win in his Twins debut. It was the sixth career save for the journeyman Ramirez, who made his 328th MLB appearance.

This win snapped a streak of 14 consecutive Twins losses in one-run games between these two division rivals in Cleveland. The last time Minnesota won a one-run game in Cleveland was on August 24, 2020.

The Twins needed a pick-me-up win like this. Undoubtedly reeling from Thursday's shocking trades, they lost Friday's series opener in walkoff fashion, then dropped another one-run game on Saturday when the Guardians scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning. Dating back to their previous trip to Cleveland earlier this season, the Twins had lost five straight games in this ballpark by a total of six runs (including three walkoffs).

Minnesota's offense got things started in style. Their first four batters recorded hits off of Guardians starter Joey Cantillo — singles from Austin Martin, Ryan Jeffers, and Matt Wallner, followed by an RBI double from Royce Lewis. The next two batters struck out, but Trevor Larnach picked them up with a big two-out, two-run single to make it an early 4-0 game.

Another journeyman post-deadline callup making his Twins debut, starter Jose Ureña allowed some hard contact in the bottom half of the first, including a long two-run homer by Jose Ramirez that cut the deficit in half. But Cleveland wouldn't score again until the ninth. Ureña settled in and threw three scoreless innings after that, escaping trouble in the third with a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play. And the Twins' bullpen, which lost its top five members over a 24-hour span this week, took it from there.

Kody Funderburk, who came into the game with a 7.27 ERA, took over for Ureña in the fifth and threw two scoreless innings. Justin Topa pitched a clean seventh with a pair of strikeouts. After what proved to be a key insurance run in the form of a Wallner triple and a Kody Clemens squeeze bunt, Cole Sands got through the heart of the Cleveland order in the eighth, striking out two more. That brought it to the ninth, where Ramirez bailed out a shaky Tonkin.

The Twins are 52-59. They're headed to Detroit to start a series against the first-place Tigers on Monday.

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