Guardians get just enough

GUARDIANS 2, TWINS 1 >> NEXT: VS. GUARDIANS, 1:10 P.M. TODAY, BSN

Two solo shots spoil Woods Richardson’s night, slow Twins’ surge

The Guardians’ Bo Naylor watches the ball after hitting a home run in the sixth inning Saturday night. STEPHEN MATUREN — GETTY IMAGES

Twins first baseman Carlos Santana catches a pop-up for an out in the seventh inning.

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By Frank Rajkowski

Special to the Pioneer Press

For much of his time on the mound Saturday night, Simeon Woods Richardson was on a roll.

But the pair of pitches when he wasn’t proved too costly for the Twins starter and his teammates to overcome.

Woods Richardson surrendered a leadoff home run to Steven Kwan in the top of the first inning, then allowed another solo home run to Bo Naylor to lead off the sixth.

And those runs proved all the Guardians needed to snap a season-long seven-game losing streak and edge the Twins 2-1 in an American League Central showdown at Target Field.

With the loss, the Twins — who started the weekend series with a doubleheader sweep Friday — fell 2 1/2 games back of Cleveland in the division standings.

“That’s baseball,” Woods Richardson said. “You have to tip your cap to them on one of them. The other, I threw the ball to the backstop (the pitch before) and you kind of have to be in the zone on the next pitch.”

It took just two pitches for the Guardians to jump in front Saturday as Kwan connected on his 12th home run of the season, a 396-foot shot to center field.

From there, though, Woods Richardson found his groove, retiring the next 11 batters in a row and 15 of the next 16.

“I was executing my pitches,” Woods Richardson said. “I was trying to go with what (catcher Ryan) Jeffers was putting down. He and I tried to execute that as well as possible.”

That stretch came to an end with Naylor’s home run to right field to start the sixth.

The Twins cut the gap to one in the bottom of the inning when Willi Castro led off with a double, and then scored on an RBI grounder from Matt Wallner. But that was as close as Minnesota could get on a night the Twins managed just four hits total.

Woods Richardson, meanwhile, pitched a career-high seven full innings, allowed just four hits, walked no one and struck out seven. But he still took the loss, falling to 3-3 this season.

“He threw the ball very, very well,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He was holding everything really well, even in that last inning. It was really what we were looking for from him. He gave it to us.”

Castro’s double was the Twins’ lone extra-base hit. Cleveland starter Gavin Williams picked up the win, allowing four hits and striking out three over six innings to improve to 2-4 in a game that finished in under two hours.

“The game felt like it was passing by quickly in the night,” Baldelli said. “There wasn’t a ton going on except a lot of good pitches being made by the pitchers. Sometimes in games like that it comes down to one inning, one situation, one play.

“We never really got off the ground offensively.”

The two teams meet again Sunday afternoon at Target Field to close out the series.

“(Williams) made some pretty good pitches today,” Castro said. “He had really good command. We just didn’t do that much. As the innings went by, we were doing a better job, having better (at-bats) against him.

“They won the game, but it was close and we’re going to come back strong tomorrow.”