Minnesota 2, Cleveland 0
When: 4:10 PM ET, Thursday, March 28, 2019
Where: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Temperature:
49°
Umpires:
Home -
Tom Hallion, 1B -
Phil Cuzzi, 2B -
Todd Tichenor, 3B -
Adam Hamari
Attendance:
39519
By Field Level Media
Right-hander Jose Berrios allowed two hits over 7 2/3 innings and Marwin Gonzalez had a two-run double as the Minnesota Twins presented Rocco Baldelli a 2-0 victory over the defending American League Central-champion Cleveland Indians in his major league managerial debut on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Berrios, making his first career Opening Day start, walked one and struck out 10. The 10 strikeouts were an Opening Day record for the Twins but were five short of the franchise record of 15 set by Camilo Pascual for the Washington Senators in a 10-1 win over Boston in 1960, one year before the team moved to Minnesota.
Berrios left after giving up a two-out single to Brad Miller in the eighth, throwing 96 pitches, 67 of which were strikes. He also allowed a leadoff ground double down the right-field line to Leonys Martin in the fourth but bounced back to get Jose Ramirez to pop out before sandwiching strikeouts of Tyler Naquin and Hanley Ramirez around a walk to Carlos Santana.
Taylor Rogers retired all four batters he faced, striking out three, to pick up the save.
Corey Kluber, tying the franchise record set by Stan Coveleski (1917-21) with his fifth consecutive Opening Day start for the Indians, no-hit the Twins for 5 1/3 innings before giving up a line double to Byron Buxton that one-hopped the fence in left. Buxton went to third on long fly out by Max Kepler but was stranded when Jorge Polanco popped to third.
The Twins then took a 2-0 lead in the seventh. Nelson Cruz led off with a broken-bat single to left and went to second one out later on a broken-bat single to center by C.J. Cron. Gonzalez then followed with a line-drive double to the fence in left-center to drive in Cruz and Cron.
Kluber gave up two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out five in seven innings.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Cleveland
|
2 |
0 |
3 |
.069 |
5 |
13 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Minnesota
|
4 |
0 |
6 |
.143 |
10 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |