Twins manager Ron Gardenhire could have pinch hit for Chris Parmelee in the seventh inning of Sunday's 8-7 victory over Cleveland.
The Twins were trailing 6-5, and with two outs, the Indians had lefthander Tony Sipp on the mound. Gardenhire had Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe on the bench as righthanded options to replace the lefthanded hitting Parmelee.
Gardenhire said if he had gone with Willingham, Indians manager Manny Acta probably would have countered with righthander Joe Smith.
"So this is the time where we want to see what Parms could do," Gardenhire said. "He had a heck of a year in Triple-A, and you leave him in there, and he gets a big base hit with two strikes off a left-hander. He's had some success off [Sipp], but we wanted to see what he could do in big situations, and he came through today."
Parmelee grounded a two-run single to right field, giving the Twins a 7-6 lead. In 11 games since getting recalled from Class AAA Rochester, he's batting .341 (15-for-44) with three doubles, three homers and 11 RBI.
