One night after Josh Naylor launched his first career walk-off home run, Andres Gimenez delivered one, giving the Guardians a second consecutive walk off win against the Minnesota Twins. With this 5-3 victory, the Guardians have mounted five comeback wins against the Twins this season, and lead head-to-head 6-5 with two September series to go. Emmanuel Clase picked up his second win after shutting down the Twins in the ninth inning and Tyler Thornburg took his first loss.
Twins pitchers allowed ten walks and hit two batters, giving the Guardians twelve free base runners. Starter Chris Archer walked six batters, including four straight Guardians hitters with two outs in the second inning and the first run. Jose Miranda hit a three-run double to give Minnesota a 3-1 lead, but their only scoring play of the afternoon.
No scoring occurred again until the eighth inning when with the bases loaded Myles Straw hit an infield single to drive in Andres Gimenez. On that play, shortstop Carlos Correa overthrew the third baseman on an attempted force out that allowed Franmil Reyes to score the tying run. After Clase tossed a shutout ninth inning, Jose Ramirez walked to start the home half. With two outs, Andres Gimenez belted the game-winner to right-center field to cap the series victory.
The Guardians improve to 39-34, finish June with an 18-10 record, drop the Twins to 43-36, and pull within one game of the division lead. The Guardians will welcome the New York Yankees (56-20), owners of MLB's best record, for a three-game series starting tomorrow at 7:10 PM.