Minnesota Twins vs Cleveland Guardians Box Score on Aug 28, 2018

The bad game Cleveland Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco had last week against Boston proved to be an aberration, not the start of a late-season slump.

Carrasco tossed 7 2/3 shutout innings and the Indians' offense provided him more than enough support in an 8-1 home win for Cleveland over Minnesota on Tuesday at Progressive Field.

Overcoming a poor start in Boston that saw him get pulled after giving up five runs in less than four innings, Carrasco was a much different pitcher against the Twins, striking out 11 batters and allowing just four hits before giving way to reliever Brad Hand with two outs in the eighth.

Carrasco threw 71 of his 104 pitches for strikes in improving to 16-7 on the season.

Francisco Lindor went 4-for-5 with two runs, Jose Ramirez went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Edwin Encarnacion went 2-for-3 with two RBIs to lead the offensive attack for Cleveland.

The Indians jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third on an RBI sacrifice fly by Ramirez and an RBI single by Encarnacion.

After scoring a run in the fourth inning on an RBI groundout by Greg Allen, the Indians blew the game open in the sixth, scoring four runs to take a 7-0 lead and chase Twins starter Kyle Gibson from the game.

Allen had another RBI groundout, Ramirez hit a 2-run double and Encarnacion had an RBI single and to produce the runs in the inning for Cleveland, which has won two straight games following a four-game losing streak.

Gibson (7-11) took the loss for the Twins, allowing five runs, eight hits, three walks and striking out four in 5 1/3 innings of work.

Jake Cave broke the shutout for Minnesota when he hit a solo home run off of Indians reliever Dan Otero in the ninth.

Joe Mauer had two hits to lead the offensive output for the Twins, who are now mired in a four-game losing streak.

--Field Level Media