CLEVELAND, Ohio – Every night is opening nights for Shane Bieber.
Bieber, in his second start to the season, struck out 13 Thursday night when the Indians beat the Twins, 2-0, at Target Field. It’s hard to imagine Bieber being better than he was on July 24 when he set an opening night record for the Indians with 14 strikeouts in six scoreless innings against Kansas City, but he was.
Bieber now has 27 strikeouts and in 14 innings covering his first two starts of the season. As general manager, Terry Francona’s initial rotation is 5-0 with a 1.53 ERA in the first seven games of the season. In those seven games, each starter has gone six or more innings, while allowing two or fewer runs.
Total strikeouts for the Tribe’s rotation? That would be 67 strikeouts in 47 innings.
Francisco Lindor supplied all the offense Bieber needed with a two-run, two-out homer against Jose Berrios (0-1, 7.00) in the third inning.
Bieber (2-0, 0.00) allowed three hits. He retired the last seven men he faced and did not walk a batter. Bieber has walked a batter and allowed seven hits in two starts this season.
Rookie James Karinchak pitched the ninth for his first major league save. Brad Hand, who lost Wednesday’s game in the ninth inning to Chicago, had shot twice in the past two games and was apparently unavailable.
The Indians took a 2-0 lead against the Twins on Lindor’s two-run homer in the third. Berrios started the inning by removing Oscar Mercado on a fly to the center and striking out César Hernández.
José Ramírez, who entered the game with a .368 average (7 of 19), sent Berriors’ 1-2 pitch to right field for a single. Berrios was also ahead of Lindor, but with the count at 0-2, he threw a fastball right in the middle and Lindor threw it over the wall in the center right for his second home run of the season.
The Indians had a chance to stretch the lead in the sixth after Berrios left after five innings. Franmil Reyes and Bradley Zimmer came in singles. Zimmer hit an infield single and continued second on shooting error by first baseman Miguel Sano. The pitch was so bad that Reyes could have scored, but he slipped to second base before continuing to third.
Zack Littell, who started the sixth, walked with Domingo Santana to load the bases with one out. Receiver Sandy Leon sent a liner to the mound. Littell stopped him with his body, picked it up, and started a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.
Another potential scoring possibility disappeared in the sixth. Hernández walked with Ramírez and Lindor because of the bat. But Hernández was fired first when he returned to first position instead of diving. Sano tagged it on the helmet, but Hernandez was originally called safe. The Twins defied the call and the secure call was dropped.
Ramirez followed with a walk and Lindor sent a liner into the space in the right center that Byron Buxton ran.
Berrios allowed two runs with three hits in five innings. He struck out six and walked one.
The Twins’ No. 1 starter entered the game with a 5-2 career record against the Indians. That included a 2-0 record last year in four starts.
The victory gave Bieber a career 4-0 record against the Twins.
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