MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Justin Morneau made the most of his second chance. After striking out with a runner on second in the eighth inning, Morneau singled home Brendan Harris in the 10th, lifting the Minnesota Twins to a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.
Morneau is hitting a pedestrian .269 this season, but is 9-for-15 (.600) with 12 RBIs with runners in scoring position.
Rafael Perez (0-1) took the loss in relief of an impressive start from Paul Byrd, and the defending AL Central champions have lost 12 of their last 16 after a 2-0 start.
Harris had three hits and a home run and Scott Baker allowed one run and five hits in seven innings for the Twins, who took two of three from the Indians despite scoring only five runs in the series.
Matt Guerrier (1-1) threw a scoreless inning to get the win in a low-scoring grinder that shouldn't have come as a surprise in a game featuring the two worst offenses in the American League.
The Twins have scored more than five runs in a game just four times this season and entered the day with the worst slugging percentage (.354) in the AL.
In a development as puzzling as Detroit's 6-13 start, the powerful Indians lineup was just a few percentage points ahead of the Twins at .360. But Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore and most of heavy-swinging Tribe simply haven't been getting it done early in the season.
Byrd gave up one run and six hits in seven innings. Franklin Gutierrez's RBI single in the second was all the Indians could muster against Baker.
Cleveland's best chance came with pinch-runner Jamey Carroll on second base with one out in the ninth. But Carlos Gomez made a brilliant diving catch of a flare by Ryan Garko to shallow center field, and Gutierrez just missed an extra-base hit when his line drive off Pat Neshek landed inches outside the left-field foul line before he blooped out to shortstop.
Morneau had a chance to put the Twins ahead when he came to the plate with two outs in the eighth, but the big Canadian lefty struck out swinging against Perez, a nasty left-hander who had pitched scoreless relief in seven of his eight appearances this season.
Morneau got his revenge in the 10th after Harris and Jason Kubel had two-out singles in front of him. He squeezed a grounder through the hole between first and second and pumped his fist as he reached the base.
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