Twins blast 5 homers in beating Indians

Byron Buxton, Willians Astudillo, Marwin Gonzalez, Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano each homered as the Minnesota Twins hit a season-high five home runs in a 8-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night in Minneapolis.

Byron Buxton, Willians Astudillo, Marwin Gonzalez, Eddie Rosario, and Miguel Sano each homered as the Minnesota Twins hit a season-high five home runs in an 8-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night in Minneapolis. It was the ninth win in the last 11 games for the Twins (29-18), who remained a game behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the American League Central.

Rich Hill (2-1) picked up the victory, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out seven over five innings. Jose Ramirez homered and had two hits, Carlos Santana doubled and scored twice and Jordan Luplow had a triple and RBI for Cleveland (26-20), which lost its fifth straight game.

Zach Plesac (3-2), who had won three consecutive starts, took the loss. Plesac, who had allowed a total of five runs and four homers in 34 innings heading into the contest, gave up five runs on six hits, including three home runs, and walked one while striking out five. Minnesota took a 3-0 lead in a second inning that featured back-to-back homers by Gonzalez and Astudillo. Brent Rooker started the rally with a one-out double to left and scored one out later on Gonzalez's fourth homer of the season, a 417-foot drive into the upper deck in right-center. Astudillo followed one pitch later with his first homer of the season, a line drive just over the fence in left.

Ramirez led off the fourth with his 11th homer of the season to cut it to 3-1. Santana followed with a double off the top of the wall in right, advanced to third on a flyout by Franmil Reyes, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Oscar Mercado. Buxton made it 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run homer into the bullpen in left-center, but Cleveland closed to 5-4 when Ludlow tripled a run in the sixth and Ramirez singled, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on another passed ball in the eighth.

But the Twins answered with back-to-back homers off reliever Nick Wittgren in the bottom of the eighth to break it open, the first a two-run drive by Rosario to right followed by Sano's solo shot into the bullpen in left-center.

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