Eddie Rosario returns, slaps tie-breaking hit in Cleveland's 4-1 victory over Twins

There was a tribute video before first pitch, and a polite ovation from a crowd that once chanted his name. Eddie Rosario must have been touched by the Twins' sentimental gestures on Thursday, his first game back at Target Field, because he returned the compliment by performing a sure-takes-you-back episode of the Eddie Experience.

Often great, occasionally exasperating, Rosario had a habit of making attention-getting plays, and it was ever thus in Cleveland's 4-1 victory over the Twins.

Rosario waited for the night's biggest moment, a bases-loaded, tie-game, eighth-inning situation against Taylor Rogers, the Twins' best reliever, before delivering the night's biggest hit. Perhaps forgetting Rosario's impatience, Rogers left a first-pitch sinker out over the plate, and Rosario slapped a hard grounder just to the right of second base, driving in two runs.

"He's a guy of moments. Eddie has a lot of moments," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He kind of waits for those moments where the spotlight is on him and he can go do something huge for his team."

The spotlight was brightest in the eighth, tied 1-1, when two singles and — talk about motivation overkill — an intentional walk off Jorge Alcala brought up Rosario. One pitch later, on a night when Jose Berrios was excellent, he was the Puerto Rican reveling in victory.

"It's fun. I know we are competing, but Rosario's still like my brother," Berrios said. "He's a special part of my life and my heart. … He's still doing what he knows how to do. He's impressive."

Another run scored seconds later when Harold Ramirez reached on an infield hit, and poof, just like that, Rosario's heroics had overshadowed his — well, his brain lock.

BOXSCORE: Cleveland 4, Twins 1

That particular moment of nostalgia came in the sixth inning. After hitting into a double play that was overturned via video on Rosario's insistence that he had beaten the play, the former Twin then put himself in position to score the tiebreaking run by easily stealing second base under a throw that briefly got away from shortstop Andrelton Simmons.

But after taking a few steps toward third base, Rosario decided not to attempt to add another base to his adventure, and he put his head down as he strode back to second, not noticing Simmons' quick flip of the ball to Jorge Polanco. Rosario's former teammate slapped the tag on his thigh, and an embarrassed Rosario was stuck pleading, unsuccessfully, for another video save.

"He sees things all around him. He can feel things on the field. He knows what other players are thinking and doing," Baldelli said of Simmons. "He learns from what he sees and what he prepares for, and then you end up with plays like that. "Rosario's time in the spotlight spoiled another excellent performance by his countryman and former teammate Berrios, who held Cleveland to one run in 6⅓ innings.

"He's fooling guys with good stuff," Baldelli said. "They're seeing something and whatever that's crossing the plate is not what they thought they were seeing."

Berrios, who had started seven consecutive Twins victories, struck out nine and walked only two, but one of those walks was costly. Bobby Bradley led off the second inning by taking a 3-2 changeup in the dirt, and he moved up on a Harold Ramirez single. Berrios struck out the next two hitters, but ninth-place, .144-hitting Austin Hedges slapped a two-strike curveball into left field, scoring Cleveland's first run.

The Twins never could solve Cleveland starter J.C. Mejia, scoring their run in the first inning on a Mejia balk followed by a wild pitch.