Indians place Salazar on DL

The Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians end their series at Progressive Field on Wednesday.

Carrasco’s ERA entering the game was 2.45, which would have led the American League if he had an additional 10 innings to qualify.

For the second straight night, the Twins (42-64) utilized the long ball and their three home runs delivered them a 10-6 win over the Indians (60-44), their fourth straight at Progressive Field dating back to a series win over Cleveland in May.

“Our offense is clicking, and I don’t know that this is a fluke”, Twins starting pitcher Kyle Gibson said. “This is what our offense is capable of doing”.

Lance McCullers (6-5) allowed two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.

Minnesota Twins’ Brian Dozier (2) forces out Cleveland Indians’ Francisco Lindor (12) at second base and throws out Mike Napoli at first base to complete the double play during the first inning.

Kepler, who hit three home runs in Monday’s game, homered in the third inning Tuesday.

“He’s locked in”, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. The Indians, who were atop the division by a season-high 7 1/2 games on July 20, are 4-7 against the last-place Twins. “We’re going to get him an injection in there, let him rest for five to seven days and start cranking him back up”, Francona said. I thought sometimes the sequencing or locations weren’t very good to the wrong hitters.

Carlos Carrasco didn’t have it Tuesday, getting torched for eight runs over just 3 2/3 frames in a loss to the Twins. He allowed one run and six hits in six innings.

Said Carrasco, “You’ve got to make your pitches”. Now they’ve returned that honor to Texas, by pounding Indians pitching. “That’s what makes it so frustrating”.

Having shaved their deficit from eight runs to two, the Indians were held scoreless on three hits over the last 4 1/3 innings by the Minnesota bullpen. In the two games since, they’ve allowed 22 runs and had two of their best pitchers (Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco) combine to allow 14 of runs.

Mauer doubled again, scoring Santana, and Kepler was intentionally walked. Kepler is real hot and he kind of threw it right to his hot zone. “Things snowballed on him and he couldn’t stop it”. Kepler hit three the night before to become the first Twins player to accomplish the feat since Justin Morneau in 2007. At one point, Gibson said, catcher Kurt Suzuki walked to the mound to ask: “Are you all right?”

Eduardo Escobar hit a two-run homer for Minnesota in the ninth.

The Cleveland Indians have placed Danny Salazar on the disabled list with inflammation in his right elbow.

The Indians on Tuesday also activated outfielder Brandon Guyer, whom they acquired in a trade with Tampa Bay on Monday. The Indians will recall RHP Mike Clevinger from Triple-A Columbus to assume Salazar’s spot in the rotation.

While the Indians got themselves to within two runs of the Twins with the six-run frame, Minnesota added some insurance in the top of the ninth inning. Kepler was born in Berlin, Germany. The others: Jimmie Hall (1963), Matt Tolbert (2008) and Eddie Rosario (2015).