Postgame: Gibson's reflexive kick was solid, if 'boneheaded'

Three extras from the Twins' missed opportunity to make it three series wins in a row against Cleveland:

Kyle Gibson never played soccer as a child, "and I'm sure you can tell," he joked after Sunday's game. "A soccer player would have kept the ball in front of him."

Gibson made a reflexive play on Yan Gomes' grounder up the middle in the third inning, kicking his back foot at the ball and hitting it squarely. Goal!

No, actually, it deflected between Eduardo Nunez and Eduardo Escobar and into left field; by the time anyone could reach it, Gomes had an unlikely double.

The dumb part, Gibson said, was that only reason Escobar couldn't field the ball was that he was shifted up the middle — right where the ball was heading.

"It was a boneheaded move, really. I've PFP'd enough to know not to try to do too much," Gibson said, using the baseball term for pitcher's fielding practice. "It was me not knowing where the infielders are. With the infielders shifted so much, I've got to take a look around and know where my guys are, because that's a ball I don't have to knock down."

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"It's comfortability and confidence — understanding what people are trying to do to him," Molitor said. "They're trying got work him inside quite a bit and he's making adjustments. He's not expanding [the strike zone], he's trying to get back over the plate where he can do his damage."

It was a cutter from Tomlin, Kepler said. "It was a good pitch. He was pounding cutters inside the whole game, so I was kind of expecting that," the rookie said. "I kept my hands in a little better than I did in my at-bats before, and got some of the bat head on the ball."

Still, Kepler wasn't anxious for an encore. Brian Dozier doubled right ahead of him in the eighth inning, and Indians manager Terry Francona pulled Tomlin from the game, bringing in Austin Adams to finish the game.

"Tomlin is pretty good," Kepler said of the Indians starter, not 10-2 on the season, "so I was relieved when the bullpen came in."

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He gave up two runs, both on solo home runs — one to Tyler Naquin, who golfed a slider onto the batter's eye in center field, one to Jason Kipnis, who slugged a middle-of-the-plate fastball into the Indians bullpen. But he also allowed the other six members of the Twins' bullpen to take a day off one day after they all were called upon to pitch in the Twins' rain-delayed 11-inning victory.

Molitor said Ramirez obviously wouldn't have pitched all three innings if the Twins had made the game closer, but "he hadn't pitched in awhile. … Other than the two home runs, he did OK."

With only seven relievers and not eight, Molitor said, he has to watch for chances to rest his bullpen. Either that, or add another reliever.