Bieber brilliant again as Indians blank Twins

He struck out six and also hit a batter. Cleveland took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on Francisco Lindor's second home run of the season, a 409-foot drive to right-center to bring home Jose Ramirez, who had singled to start the two-out rally.

Shane Bieber pitched eight shutout innings and entered the major league record books with 13 more strikeouts as the Cleveland Indians blanked the Minnesota Twins 2-0 Thursday night at Minneapolis. Bieber, who set a franchise Opening Day record with 14 strikeouts over six shutout innings in a 2-0 victory against Kansas City on Friday, allowed just three singles. His 27 strikeouts in his first two starts of the season tied the modern era (since 1901) MLB record set by Karl Spooner of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954.

Bieber (2-0) left after throwing 102 pitches, 69 of which were strikes. He has allowed just seven hits and a walk in 14 innings this season. James Karinchak pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his first big league save. Jose Berrios (0-1) took the loss, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks over five innings. He struck out six and also hit a batter.

Cleveland took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on Francisco Lindor's second home run of the season, a 409-foot drive to right-center to bring home Jose Ramirez, who had singled to start the two-out rally. The Indians had a chance to the extend the lead in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with one out against reliever Zack Littell. Franmil Reyes singled to left and then went to third on Bradley Zimmer's infield single and a throwing error by first baseman Miguel Sano. Domingo Santana then walked to load the bases, but Littell got out of the jam when he got catcher Sandy Leon on a comebacker to start a 1-2-3 double play.

The Twins' best scoring chance against Bieber came in the bottom half of the inning when Byron Buxton and Max Kepler had back-to-back one-out singles. But Bieber rebounded to strike out Josh Donaldson and then retired Jorge Polanco on a long fly ball to center. Cleveland became the first team ever to have starters strike out 10 or more batters four times through the first seven games of the season.

--Field Level Media

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