MINNEAPOLIS — Tanner Bibee and the Cleveland bullpen had 15 strikeouts to put the clamps on Minnesota's bats, Steven Kwan had three hits and the Guardians spoiled the Twins' home opener with a 4-2 victory Thursday.
Bibee (1-0) matched his career high with nine strikeouts, allowing one run over 5 1/3 innings. Four relievers followed, with Emmanuel Clase working a perfect ninth for his third save.
Carlos Correa had three hits and Edouard Julien homered for the Twins. Minnesota, which averaged more than 10 strikeouts per game to lead the majors last year, fanned the 15 times and stranded nine runners — eight in scoring position.
The eighth inning was emblematic of the Twins' struggles. With Minnesota down by two runs, Correa led off with a double. But he remained stuck at second as Scott Barlow struck out Carlos Santana, Manuel Margot and Willi Castro in order to end the threat.
“We, obviously, didn’t get the job done when we had the opportunity,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We put ourselves in pretty good spots. Punchouts do hurt you with runners in scoring position. At least giving yourself a shot and putting it in play is probably a better scenario for us.”
Twins starter Pablo López (1-1) gave up four runs — three earned — in 5 2/3 innings.
After retiring the first nine hitters he faced, López ran into trouble in the fourth. Kwan led off with the first of three straight singles to start the inning, and Cleveland ended up scoring three runs.
“They were still staying with their approach, putting the ball in play, trying to make some things happen,” López said. “One hit after the other, they compounded.”
The Twins put runners in scoring position in three of the first four innings but came up empty each time. Julien finally broke through when he led off the fifth with an opposite-field homer, a towering fly that got up in the stiff north wind and carried into the left-field stands.
“Tanner really made a good adjustment there,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Little erratic early but was able to navigate through five-plus innings, which was huge for us today. Kept us in the game the whole time, gave us a chance to win.”
Cleveland tacked on an unearned run in the sixth on Correa's two-out error.
The Twins cut it to 4-2 in the seventh on a wild pitch by Hunter Gaddis, but they left two more runners in scoring position.
UP NEXT
Guardians: On Saturday, RHP Carlos Carrasco (0-0, 5.40 ERA) will make his second start in his return to Cleveland after three seasons with the Mets. Carrasco gave up three runs in five innings against the Athletics on Sunday.
Twins: RHP Joe Ryan (0-0, 1.69) gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings in his first start of the season on Saturday at Kansas City. Ryan was 0-3 with a 3.24 ERA in three starts against Cleveland last year.
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