Name: Twins hit five home runs as they beat Indians
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Twins hit five home runs as they beat Indians

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GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS.XBy | | St. Paul Pioneer PressA year ago, the Twins made a habit of bludgeoning opponents with the longball. There were 307 of them, to be exact, setting a major-league record in the process.This year’s Twins, it seemed, were well set up to outpace their previous selves before the season started.It hasn’t turned out that way for the Twins, but Saturday provided somewhat of a flashback as the Twins hit five home runs on their way to an 8-4 win over the Indians on Saturday night at Target Field. Five home runs marks a new season-high for them.“If you think about a 162-game season, right now, it’s basically where we’d probably be in the first two or three months of the regular season, like 100-plus at-bats,” left fielder Eddie Rosario said. “That’s when everyone starts warming up for a regular season, for 162. Obviously, we’re in the middle of this pandemic-shortened season, so right now is when everybody in the regular season starts warming up, so I think everybody’s clicking together.”For most of the game, the bottom part of the Twins order carried their offense. Marwin Gonzalez, who entered the day with just two hits in the month of September, seemingly broke out of his slump with a two-run home run to right off Cleveland starter Zach Plesac in the second inning. His home run was followed immediately by a line drive home run to left from Willians Astudillo, his first of the season.Plesac had entered the day having given up just five runs all season in his 34 innings pitched, but the bottom of the order did more damage off Plesac in the fourth inning when Byron Buxton hit a two-run shot off him.&nbsp;It was the second two-run home run for Buxton in as many days and put the Twins (29-18) on top 5-2 &nbsp;at the time after the Indians (26-20) had scored a pair of runs off of Rich Hill in the top of the fourth.Though the Indians scattered a few runs of their own and had made it a one-run game in the eighth inning, Rosario, wearing No. 21 as the league honors legend Roberto Clemente this week, helped provide some breathing room with a two-run blast in the bottom of the eighth.“It’s an honor as a Puerto Rican. He’s our idol. … I think I’m going to keep this jersey forever,” Rosario said. “It’s an honor to wear that 21. It’s a good number to wear because I hit a homer tonight.”Miguel Sano followed with another homer, marking just the second time in franchise history that the Twins have gone back-to-back twice in a game. The other time was in 1966.That, and a solid start from Hill helped propel them past the Indians, who have now lost five straight games and have fallen to third place in the division behind the White Sox and Twins.Hill gave the Twins five solid innings striking out a season-high seven and thanks to his offense, he picked up his first win since July.“Really, going out there and connecting, putting those types of impactful swings that we know our guys can do. They went out there hitting tonight,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It was spaced out a little bit. We were able to continue to put some runs on the board but continue to add on when we needed them.”INJURY UPDATERookie Brent Rooker was hit on the arm in the fourth inning with a pitch by Plesac and suffered a fractured forearm, ending his season.Rooker, one of the team’s top prospects, was called up earlier this month when Max Kepler went on the injured list.“He’s already casted up and I believe he’s going to have a procedure going forward to fix the displaced fracture,” Baldelli said. “We knew when we went out there to check on him on the field that he was not in great shape. Obviously, we don’t know the extent of it, but it’s a pretty serious injury. I think long-term, I think a procedure will be able to fix him up well, but a tough break.”Sign up for Newsletters and AlertsClose

GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS.XBy | | St. Paul Pioneer PressA year ago, the Twins made a habit of bludgeoning opponents with the longball. There were 307 of them, to be exact, setting a major-league record in the process.This year’s Twins, it seemed, were well set up to outpace their previous selves before the season started.It hasn’t turned out that way for the Twins, but Saturday provided somewhat of a flashback as the Twins hit five home runs on their way to an 8-4 win over the Indians on Saturday night at Target Field. Five home runs marks a new...

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Betsy Helfand

Twin Cities news, sports, politics, entertainment and business from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota's first newspaper.

Twins hit five home runs as they beat Indians

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