CLEVELAND -- The Twins continued their success against the American League Central-leading Indians on Monday night, as right fielder Max Kepler put on a stellar performance with three of Minnesota's five home runs in a 12-5 win in the series opener at Progressive Field.
All three of Kepler's homers were two-run shots. He hit one in the first, third and sixth to log the fifth three-homer game in Twins history. It was the first since Justin Morneau on July 6, 2007, at the White Sox. Kepler became the first player to hit three homers with six RBIs against the Indians since Paul Konerko did it on July 7, 2009.
Minnesota starter Jose Berrios posted his longest outing of his career. The right-hander, ranked as the No. 16 overall prospect by MLBPipeline.com, made his Major League debut against the Tribe earlier this season on April 27. In his first start since rejoining the club, Berrios held the Indians to three runs on four hits over six innings. All three runs came in the first.
Tribe starter Danny Salazar was on the receiving end of two Kepler jacks. Salazar surrendered three total homers in the shortest outing of his career. The right-hander was pulled after three batters in the third without recording an out. Salazar gave up six runs on six hits across two frames.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Max power: Kepler put on a historic performance against the Indians by crushing three homers that went a combined 1,234 feet, per Statcast™. He also became the fourth player this season to hit three homers at least 400 feet. It marked the second multi-homer game of Kepler's young career, as he also hit two against the Rangers on July 2. He has firmly established himself in the mix for the American League Rookie of the Year Award. Kepler came up with two late chances to hit a fourth homer, but he grounded out to first against newly acquired Andrew Miller in the eighth and singled off reliever Zach McAllister in the ninth.
Homers haunt Salazar: Salazar's struggles continued with the long ball on Monday. The 26-year-old hurler coughed up three home runs for the first time in his career. But it has been a trending issue for Salazar. He has allowed seven homers over his last five starts after allowing just six through his first 15 nods. This has led to a 8.84 ERA over his past four starts. Prior to that, the AL All-Star posted a 2.36 ERA.
Shane Jackson is a reporter for MLB.com based in Cleveland and covered the Indians on Monday.
Rhett Bollinger has covered the Twins for MLB.com since 2011. Read his blog, Bollinger Beat, follow him on Twitter @RhettBollinger and listen to his podcast.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire