Kwan, Bazzana, Adell Each Homer as Cleveland Rolls Minnesota 9-2
Cleveland put three home runs on the board from three different players and never looked back, beating Minnesota 9-2 on Sunday. The story of the night was a Guardians offense that looked utterly uncontainable, with six players recording multi-hit games.
Cleveland wasted no time. Steven Kwan led off the game with a 357-foot home run to right, and the Guardians never trailed. Jo Adell added a 451-foot blast to left in the third to push it to 2-0, but Minnesota answered in the same inning when Clemens doubled to left and Keaschall scored, cutting the deficit to one. That's as close as the Twins would get. The fourth inning is where this game was effectively decided: Kwan doubled to right to score Rocchio, and then Bazzana singled to right to score Kwan, pushing Cleveland to a 4-1 lead. That Kwan double was the decisive moment — Minnesota's win probability dropped from 42% to 28%, a 13-point swing that, in hindsight, looks like the last real breath the Twins had all night.
Bazzana then put the game completely out of reach in the sixth, launching a two-run homer to right center at 395 feet to score Rocchio and make it 6-1. Trevor Larnach gave the home crowd something to cheer with a solo shot to right in the seventh — 366 feet, a respectable answer — but it only trimmed the margin to 6-2. Cleveland piled on in the ninth anyway, with Adell hitting a ground rule double to score Halpin, Lowe adding a sacrifice fly to score Bazzana, and Martínez doubling to center to plate Adell. Final: 9-2. The ninth-inning insurance wasn't necessary, but it was a statement.
On the mound, Tanner Bibee was sharp: 6.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts. He gave Cleveland exactly what they needed — length and control. Matt Festa closed it out with a clean inning, striking out two. Minnesota's Joe Ryan, by contrast, lasted just 4.0 innings, allowing 7 hits and 4 earned runs against a single strikeout. Travis Adams came on and gave up 2 more earned runs over 3 innings. The pitching gap appears to have been just as wide as the offensive one. Final lines: Kwan went 3-for-4 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored; Bazzana was 2-for-4 with a homer and 3 RBI; Adell went 2-for-5 with a homer and 2 RBI. Cleveland's depth up and down the lineup made this one feel like a mismatch from the opening pitch.