Austin Hedges and Petey Halpin hit sacrifice flies in the sixth inning as the Cleveland Guardians, a night after hitting seven homers, used small ball to beat the Minnesota Twins 5-2 on Tuesday for a third straight victory.
Cleveland starter Parker Messick allowed two runs — one earned — on four hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter before leaving with a runner on second. Colin Holderman (5-2) got the final out in the inning to qualify for the win.
Hunter Gaddis pitched a scoreless 1 1/3 innings before Cade Smith closed it out in the ninth for his 29th save — tops in the majors.
Ryan Jeffers hit his ninth homer, a two-out shot off Messick in the first for a 1-0 lead.
Hedges walked leading off the third against Kendry Rojas and scored on a double by Steven Kwan to tie it. Mike Paredes (0-3) replaced Rojas and surrendered an RBI single to Brayan Rocchio to put Cleveland up 2-1.
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