CLEVELAND -- Twins reliever Matt Capps threw one pitch in Friday night's 6-5 loss, and Carlos Santana sent it into the Cleveland night for a walk-off home run.
It was Santana's 27th homer, and this time, he was leading off the ninth inning as a pinch-hitter for Lou Marson.
"Cappy comes in, he's trying to get ahead of the guy first pitch, and the young man did what you like to see off the bench," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "You come ready to hit a fastball when you're pinch hitting. And he threw a fastball, and got it over the plate, and the kid killed it."
* The Twins have loaded the bases with no outs and still failed to score three times in the past four days. Each time, there was one critical at-bat: Tuesday, it was Michael Cuddyer's strikeout. Wednesday, it was Trevor Plouffe's double-play grounder. Tonight, Joe Benson grounded into the key double play.
It was similar to Plouffe's at-bat, in that Benson was too aggressive. Cleveland starter Justin Masterson had walked the first two batters on eight pitches and hit Rene Tosoni to load the bases.
With a 1-0 count, Masterson threw a slider, low and away, well outside the strike zone. It would have been 2-0, but Benson chased it for strike one.
"You've got a tough pitcher out there, and if he gets a pitch 1-0, you've got a chance," Gardenhire said. "If the ball's up, you can get the ball to the outfield grass. If you're chasing down, then you're too aggressive."
Benson fouled off a 2-1 pitch, right down the middle, and then Masterson left a sinker high in the strike zone. Instead of driving that pitch to the outfield, Benson grounded it back to Masterson, who started a 1-2-3 double play.
