After recent troubles, Twins bullpen comes through in victory over Indians

CLEVELAND – It's a lost season for the Twins, but they are trying to prove they haven't mentally checked out.

Manager Ron Gardenhire said more than once after their 4-3 victory over the Indians on Tuesday night that they are "in a pennant race." Perhaps a poor choice of words, but the intention is to show the Twins aren't taking these games lightly.

"It's not so much playing the spoiler role," Gardenhire said. "It's about going out and doing our jobs. We have to go out and play A-grade baseball. We owe it to the rest of the league to give everything we have."

They did on Tuesday, riding a four-run explosion in the fourth inning to a victory that ended their four-game losing streak. The biggest boost came from the bullpen, which held Cleveland to one run over four innings to back up rookie Trevor May (2-4), who won his second start in a row.

What's that? Cleveland has scored three or fewer runs in five consecutive games? That's correct. But the Twins bullpen had a 8.13 ERA over its previous eight games before Tuesday.

"We used a lot of bullpen playing the Angels," Gardenhire said. "[Monday's off day] was huge to get a little bit of a break."

Down 2-0 with two outs the fourth, Joe Mauer dropped a bloop double down the left-field line, the Twins' first hit off Trevor Bauer (5-8). The well-placed hit moved Mauer past Rod Carew for fourth place on the Twins' all-time doubles list with 306.

Kennys Vargas followed with a double to right center, scoring Mauer. Trevor Plouffe followed with a single to tie the score.

On Bauer's next pitch, Oswaldo Arcia crushed his 16th homer of the season, a drive to right-center that put the Twins ahead. They had only one more hit the rest of the game.

Aaron Thompson, Brian Duensing, Casey Fien and Jared Burton took it from there. The Indians pulled within 4-3 in the eighth, but Burton needed only six pitches to get his second save as closer Glen Perkins recovers from a sore neck.

"Hopefully we can get deeper in the game the next couple games with our starters and give [the bullpen] a little bit more of a break," Gardenhire said.

Injury updates

Rookie Danny Santana took swings Tuesday and reported a little soreness in his left lower back, but nothing that could keep him out of the lineup for a third consecutive game. He sat out Tuesday but is expected to play Wednesday.

Santana was removed from Saturday's game because of lower back soreness. The Twins want him back in the lineup so he can get some games at shortstop under his belt after spending most of his rookie season as the starting center fielder.

Perkins threw in the bullpen and felt fine, and after missing three games because of his neck trouble, the All-Star is expected to be available Wednesday.

Hair apparent

Kyle Gibson showed up in Cleveland with a bald head. It looked like the righthander had lost a bet.

Actually, he's trying to win one.

What started out as a discussion about Gibson's hair growing fast has become a challenge to determine just how fast his hair does grow back. Gibson has until the end of the season for his hair to grow as long as Perkins currently wears his, which is about the length of the next-to-largest guard that comes with a set of electric clippers.

"If we take a 2-guard through it and if it cuts any hair, I win," said Gibson, who starts Wednesday's game.

Gibson, as of now, would win $400, which he said he would donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Other players might get in on the action.

Perkins denied he said that Gibson has the worst hair on the team. "He's got bad hair," Perkins said, "but I never said that."