Kody Clemens went 2-for-4 with an RBI triple, and the Minnesota Twins held on for a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.
Austin Martin and Brooks Lee added one RBI apiece for Minnesota, which took the opener of a three-game series. The Twins have won three games in a row.
Rhys Hoskins hit a solo homer for Cleveland’s only run. Chase DeLauter went 2-for-3 with a double for the Guardians, who dropped their third straight game.
Twins right-hander Taj Bradley (8-3) allowed one run on three hits. He struck out 10 without a walk.
Guardians left-hander Joey Cantillo (7-4) took the hard-luck loss after allowing two unearned runs on six hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out seven.
Twins right-hander Yoendrys Gomez got the final out to collect his 10th save.
Cleveland started the scoring in the top of the second. Hoskins belted a 98-mph fastball over the wall in center for his eighth homer of the season and his first since June 19.
The Twins responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second to go ahead 2-1. Martin hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded to drive in Minnesota’s first run, and Lee followed in the next at-bat with a go-ahead single to center.
The Guardians squandered a leadoff double by DeLauter in the seventh. DeLauter advanced to third on a groundout by Kyle Manzardo, but he was stranded after Hoskins struck out swinging and Brayan Rocchio grounded out to first.
Minnesota made it 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh. Josh Bell hit a leadoff single to center and sprinted home when Clemens ripped a two-out triple to left.
The Twins played without All-Star outfielder Byron Buxton, who was placed on the injured list before the game because of a lingering hip injury.
