Minnesota Twins defeat Cleveland Indians 2-1 – MLB Update
Danny Valencia emerged as the solo star with his single in the ninth inning on Tuesday, July 19 to help Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians 2-1 at Target Field.
Valencia’s hit came against his real life friend, but a rival on the field, Chris Perez. This hit that entitled his team with a victory put a perfectly serious query over what he thought of the friend and hit.
"I'm sure he wants to throw a slider because he's always said that's what he's going to strike me out with," Valencia said. "Luckily enough he couldn't get ahead and he gave me a pitch I could hit good enough to get to the outfield and it fell in there."
However, the friendship apart, the Twins needed a victory desperately given the fact that they had lost the last two games by 5-2 and 6-3.
"We needed this really bad, especially since we're so close to getting back into this thing," Valencia said. "Especially dropping two games yesterday, hopefully this will give us some momentum here on out."
Francisco Liriano, the starter for Minnesota on Tuesday, came with a different outlook, pitching strong innings. The first two innings that he pitched, keeping them scoreless, he did not give up even a single hit.
Justin Masterson, on the other hand, took up the responsibility to pitch with equal efficacy, if not ferocity to hold the Twins’ offence back. The rivals seemed successful in their endeavour as the game remained scoreless till the fifth inning.
Asdrubal Cabrera did it for the Indians in the fifth inning with his sacrifice hit that gave the Indians a 1-0 lead. Given the previous two games’ record whereby the Indians prevailed without much difficulty, the lead seemed favourable for them.
Justin Masterson kept pitching effective innings while Phil Dumatrait was brought as a reliever once Liriano pitched the sixth inning. Liriano gave up four hits and allowed a run in his six innings.
Masterson, on the other hand, remained effective in his 7.2 innings, giving up only four hits, disallowing the Twins’ hitters from scoring.
Glen Perkins pitched for Minnesota in the ninth inning, not allowing any edge to the Indians as the game took a turn in the bottom of ninth when Chris Perez came as closer.
While he sent other hitters of Minnesota packing, he could not hold his friend Danny Valencia back. Valencia hit a two-run single to not only reverse the Indians’ lead but also gave a 2-1 victory to the Twins in an unlikely game.
The win has now brought the four-game series to 2-1 whose final game shall be played on Wednesday.
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