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Indians thump Twins in doubleheader opener

Sep 11, 2014 - 7:26 PM Cleveland, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Carlos Santana and Yan Gomes homered to back 8 1/3 strong innings from Corey Kluber, as the Cleveland Indians opened a traditional doubleheader against Minnesota with an 8-2 victory on Thursday.

Santana's two-run blast in the first inning gave the Indians the lead and Gomes finished 2-for-4 with a two-run double in addition to a solo homer. Michael Brantley drove in two runs and scored twice for Cleveland, which dropped the opener of this three-game set Tuesday before Wednesday's scheduled contest was rained out and forced the twinbill.

Kluber (15-9) gave up two runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts and no walks. He was coming off a five-hitter in a complete-game victory over the White Sox five days ago and tried to go the distance for a second straight start, but was pulled after giving up three hits with a run in the ninth.

Kennys Vargas and Trevor Plouffe drove in runs for Minnesota, while Oswaldo Arcia had two hits in defeat.

Kyle Gibson (11-11) was roughed up for seven runs on seven hits over three innings to absorb the loss. He had surrendered just six earned runs in 17 1/3 innings over his first three starts against Cleveland this season.

The Twins gave Gibson an early lead when Danny Santana led off the game with a double and raced home on a two-out single by Vargas, but the Indians answered with two outs in the home half and never looked back.

Gibson retired the first two batters he faced, but Brantley walked on four pitches and Santana belted a 2-0 offering into the right-field seats for his 26th homer.

Gomes made it 3-1 with a leadoff homer in the second and the Tribe tacked on four more in their next at-bat. Brantley stroked an RBI single for the third straight hit to start the third and Jason Kipnis drew a one-out walk to load the bases for Gomes, who knocked in two more with a double off the left-field wall before Lonnie Chisenhall's sacrifice fly made it 7-1.

Michael Bourn singled with one out in the sixth, stole second and scored on a base hit by Brantley.

Kluber, meanwhile, allowed just one baserunner between the first and eighth innings. Arcia started the fifth with a single, but was quickly erased on a double-play grounder by Kurt Suzuki.

Arcia then led off the eighth with a single and Eduardo Escobar slapped a base hit into left with one out, but Kluber set down the next two batters.

Kluber went back out for the ninth in an attempt to earn his fourth complete game of the season, but Brian Dozier led off with a single and Vargas added a one-out base hit. Plouffe then knocked out the Cleveland starter with an RBI hit before Kyle Crockett entered and retired the last two batters.

Game Notes

Kluber has allowed two runs or fewer in 14 of his last 17 starts. He now has 230 strikeouts this season ... Gibson fell to 0-2 in his last five outings and hasn't earned a victory since Aug. 13 at Houston ... Minnesota's Joe Mauer went 0-for-4 and had a 10-game hitting streak at Progressive Field stopped.