The Cleveland Baseball Club was not able to come through with a clutch hit as the Minnesota Twins won 5-4 in extra-innings.
Ultimately the result of a game can come down to whether a team is able to get a timely hit. Cleveland had multiple chances with the game tied, but was simply unable to do so. While Minnesota squandered an opportunity prior to extra-innings, a RBI double from Jorge Polanco in the 10th was the difference in what ended up as a 5-4 loss for Cleveland.
In the 8th inning Bradley Zimmer, who hit a two-run homer earlier in the game to give Cleveland a brief 2-1 lead, reached on a walk with one out in the inning. Zimmer would proceed to steal second and eventually reach third on a wild pitch. This was the perfect chance for someone to drive in Zimmer to reclaim the lead. Unfortunately all Oscar Mercado and Owen Miller could muster was a strikeout and groundout respectively.
In the 10th with Amed Rosario on second, it was a Jose Ramirez groundout followed by consecutive strikeouts by Franmil Reyes and Zimmer which led to the Twins coming through in the bottom of the inning.
Cal Quantrill was Cleveland’s starter and pitched well enough to possibly earn a win. Quantrill danced around eight hits and one walk in 5 innings, allowing just three runs while striking out four. It was not the best outing for Quantrill, but it kept Cleveland in the game and at one point allowed them to take the lead.
The late innings were not kind to Nick Wittgren as his performance was symbolic of his season long struggles. In 1.2 innings Wittgren would walk three batters and allow three hits, the final one being the game-winning RBI double from Polanco. Ultimately it is losses like this one which show just how far away Cleveland is from being an actual contender.
