Milone starts for ill Hughes, pitches Twins past Indians 4-2

It worked momentarily, and then again when Kipnis scored on Francisco Lindor’s groundout against Twins left-hander Tommy Milone (9-5). Santana went seven scoreless innings with no walks and 10 strikeouts, a season high at the time.

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber delivers in the…

Cleveland Indians third baseman Mike Aviles, right, reaches but…

2B Brian Dozier led off Saturday night’s game at Detroit with a double and scored the Twins’ first run. But the Twins are clearly the most surprising team in the playoff hunt.

After losing a game in the American League wild-card race with a loss in the series finale at Kansas City on Sunday, Cleveland put another one in the wrong column in the series opener against Minnesota, dropping a 4-2 decision to its Central Division rival. Over his past six outings, the big righty has gone 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA and.225 opponents. average in 36 1/3 innings.

“It feels good but we’re obviously not finished yet”, said Plouffe, who homered as part of a three-run first inning.

“My hat goes off to Tommy”, said Twins manager Paul Molitor.

“I was thinking back to a year ago, when we were coming up the stairs and getting ready to dump champagne on each other”, said Ausmus, who learned Friday he had been retained for next season. The Astros played later in Seattle.

As encouraging as the top of the first inning was, the Twins were still starting a pitcher who had recently been out with a sore shoulder and hadn’t started a game the last two turns through the rotation.

After the first inning, Kluber held the Twins to one run on four hits in his last five innings.

“It’s always great when you win”, Milone said. Elevated pitches by Kluber led to balls that came off the bat at velocities of 104, 108 and 104 miles per hour, respectively, according to Statcast™.

Cody Anderson (6-3, 3.31) pitched opposite Gibson and won his fourth straight start, having posted a 1.38 ERA during his winning streak. The Indians fell behind early, managed only six hits and moved closer to elimination before a crowd of only 10,007. “Not many people here tonight, but not much energy in our dugout either”. “We can’t have that, especially in our situation”.

Cleveland got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Francisco Lindor, making a strong case for AL rookie of the year, hit a home run to left to make it 3-1. With seven home games remaining in the season, the Indians have a chance to finish with a better winning percentage on the road (.518) than at home (.472) for the first time since 2005….

With two outs, Joe Mauer swung at the first pitch and powered a double off the center-field wall.

Plouffe’s home run broke an 0-for-12 slump.

Minnesota Twins’ Eddie Rosario (20) congratulates Brian Dozier (2)…

Lindor’s 11th homer since being called up from the minors on June 12 cut the deficit to 3-1.

In the sixth inning, Kipnis drove a ball to deep center that Twins outfielder Aaron Hicks couldn’t haul in.