On Thursday afternoon, two teams headed for the MLB Playoffs met up as the Cleveland Indians hosted the Minnesota Twins. The Indians have been on an absolute tear through the second half of the season and behind pitcher Carlos Carrasco were able to keep Minnesota scoreless through eight innings. Here's the latest Twins vs. Indians game recap with top performers, stats, a standings update, and what's next for these teams.
MLB game recap
The Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins remained tied at 0-0 until the home team broke things up in the sixth scoring two runs and then added two more in the seventh inning. They would add another run in the eighth inning to make it a 5-0 game. Minnesota tried to rally, scoring twice in the ninth, but that was all they could manage and the Indians hung on for win No. 100 for their season.
Three Cleveland Indians players hit home runs in the latest effort. Jason Kipnis recorded his 12th of the season, Roberto Perez had his eighth, and Jay Bruce recorded his sixth. For the latest game, Francisco Lindor was 2-for-4 with a run scored, while Kipnis was 1-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
Perez also recorded two RBIs in his 1-for-3 performance.
On the losing side, the Minnesota Twins got both of their RBIs from Mitch Garver. He finished the day 1-for-4 including a triple to score Max Kepler and Chris Gimenez in the top of the ninth inning. Kepler finished 2-for-4, giving him today's best batting performance for the Twins.
Carlos Carrasco pitched just over eight innings, with an impressive 14 strikeouts, allowing six hits but no runs to the Twins. Carrasco is now 18-6 for the season. Taking the loss for Minnesota was Trevor Hildenberger who is now 3-3 for his record.
Standings & what's next
Today's win brings the Cleveland Indians to 100-59 for their season with a 47-31 record at home.
They've now gone 8-2 over their last 10 games. Cleveland will be in the MLB Playoffs as the winner of the AL Central division. Next up, they'll host the Chicago White Sox on Friday starting at 7:10 p.m. Eastern Time with Trevor Bauer (16-9, 4.28 ERA) on the mound.
The Minnesota Twins are 83-76 overall and 44-37 on the road. Minnesota is 5-5 over their last 10 games. They've already earned an American League Wild Card spot. The Twins will host the Detroit Tigers in Minnesota on Friday starting at 8:10 p.m. Eastern Time. Kyle Gibson (12-10, 5.02 ERA) gets the pitching start for the Twins.