Bottom of lineup carries Twins' offense to back bullpen game

CLEVELAND -- Sometimes things can change quickly in MLB.

On Friday afternoon, Twins manager Derek Shelton introduced himself to Yoendrys Gómez in the meal room in Progressive Field’s visiting clubhouse.

A little more than 48 hours later, Gómez unleashed a celebratory fist bump after getting the 27th out in the Twins’ series-clinching 5-4 win on Sunday.

Gómez’s whiplash is perhaps the perfect summation for the Twins’ weekend series against the Guardians, as they dropped the first game of the series, won on Saturday despite only having two hits and then had their Sunday win fueled by a cavalcade of unproven relievers and production from the bottom of the lineup.

“Complete team victory,” Shelton said.

The bottom three hitters in the Twins lineup combined to go 6-for-11 with four runs scored, Kody Clemens led that unit with a 3-for-4 day that included two doubles, two runs scored and a steal.

“Any given day it can be anybody,” Clemens said. “[Byron Buxton] carried us yesterday. But the lineup is deep and everyone is going to come around at some point. As long as we have three guys clicking in the lineup, I think we'll be fine.”

The Twins’ 13-hit day was a far cry from the showing they had on Saturday, when Buxton’s leadoff homer and 11th-inning double accounted for all of their offense.

Six of those hits came in their four-run fifth inning, which Clemens, Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis opened with back-to-back-to-back hits before Buxton, Josh Bell and Austin Martin racked up hits once the lineup flipped back over.

“We just kept adding on at-bat after at-bat and then got some big two-out hits,” Shelton said.

That offensive performance helped back up a day of successful pitching chaos for the Twins. With scheduled starter Taj Bradley on the shelf with right pec inflammation, manager Derek Shelton was forced to turn to a mismash of young relievers and journeyman veterans.

And they were able to answer the call.

Andrew Morris started the game with a scoreless inning as an opener (marking the first time he’s thrown in back-to-back games in his career) before giving way to Kendry Rojas, who allowed just one run over 3 1/3 innings of bulk work to pick up his first big league win.

“I've been coming out of the bullpen [in the Minors] and that worked helped me feel really good today,” Rojas said.

Rojas, the Twins No. 10 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, got himself into trouble in the third inning when the Guardians tied the game up and had two runners on with just one out, but he was able to buckle down and strike out Kyle Manzardo and get Angel Martínez to fly out.

While there were some dicey moments once Rojas left (Travis Adams allowed two earned runs and the Guardians got the go-ahead run on base in the eighth inning against Luis García), Minnesota’s smattering of relievers was able to do just enough to close the door.

Gómez (who previously picked up a save this season with the Rays) became the seventh Twins pitcher to record a save this season.

“That’s big for us,” Shelton said. “The credit goes for our baseball ops group since that’s someone we just acquired.”

The victory also provided the Twins with some wins on the macro level, as it secured them their first series win in almost a month while also giving them their first series win at Progressive Field since September 2023.

While the win doesn’t fully exorcise the demons that seem to pester the Twins every time they come to Cleveland, it was obviously a positive step in the right direction.

“We just grind these ones out, and of course, today got down to a one-run victory,” Clemens said with a chuckle.