CLEVELAND — Sonny Gray got hurt, and the Twins got hammered. It's hard to imagine a more symbolic sendoff against the first-place Guardians.
Cleveland racked up four runs before Gray's hamstring forced him out of the game, and seven more against the Twins' bullpen, finishing off a championship-level weekend rout of the former first-place Twins with an 11-4 victory at Progressive Field.
The Guardians won four times in this five-game series that the Twins had hoped would salvage their season. Instead, Minnesota moves on to Kansas City facing a seven-game deficit with 15 games to play. Essentially, this weekend crowned the new AL Central champions.
Josh Naylor crushed a first-inning home run off Gray, Amed Rosario connected off rookie Ronny Henriquez for a three-run shot that made it 7-3 in the sixth, and Luke Maile added one against Jorge Lopez.
Nick Gordon homered for the Twins and Luis Arraez, who started the day leading the American League in hitting, was 1-for-3 to keep his average at .317.
