Austin Hedges scored the winning run with two outs in the 15th inning when shortstop Jermaine Palacios mishandled Amed Rosario’s grounder and the host Cleveland Guardians, despite blowing a 5-0 lead, completed a sweep of a doubleheader with a 7-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night.

Hedges had reached base when automatic runner Myles Straw, sacrificed to third earlier in the inning, got caught off third by Gio Urshela on Hedges’ grounder to third. Steven Kwan, who finished 3-for-6 with three runs scored, followed with a single to send Hedges to third. Rosario then hit a hard grounder off Palacios’ glove to win it.

Rosario went 4-for-8 with four RBIs for Cleveland (79-66), which increased its American League Central Division lead to 4 1/2 games over the second-place Chicago White Sox and seven games over the Twins. Kirk McCarty (4-2) picked up the win, allowing one unearned run over the final three innings.

The Guardians won the first game, 5-1. Rosario went 8-for-13 with a homer, six RBIs, a stolen base and a run scored in the doubleheader.

Nick Gordon hit a two-run homer, Gio Urshela had three hits and two RBIs and Jose Miranda also had two hits for Minnesota (72-73), which suffered its eighth straight loss to the Guardians.

Dereck Rodriguez (0-1), recalled between games from Triple-A St. Paul when reliever Trevor Megill was placed on the COVID injured list, suffered the loss, allowing two unearned runs on three hits over 3 2/3 innings.

Cleveland took a 1-0 lead in the first when Kwan was hit by a pitch to begin the inning, advanced to second on a single by Rosario and scored on a double by Oscar Gonzalez.

Rosario made it 4-0 in the fifth with his 10th homer of the season, a three-run drive to right-center. He added an RBI single in the seventh to drive in Kwan, who had doubled, to extend the lead to 5-0.

Minnesota, which loaded the bases with one out in the seventh but failed to score, rallied to tie it with five runs in the eighth.

Pinch hitter Jake Cave reached on an error by second baseman Owen Miller to open the inning, Miranda singled and Carlos Correa was then hit by a pitch to load the bases. Urshela then singled in Cave and Miranda, and Gary Sanchez made it 5-3 with a sacrifice fly to drive in Correa. James Karinchak then replaced Trevor Stephan and, one out later, Gordon tied it with his eighth home run of the season, a two-run blast to right-center.

The Guardians had a chance to win it in the bottom of the 12th when Straw singled, but Twins center fielder Mark Contreras easily threw automatic runner Gonzalez out at the plate.

Minnesota then took a 6-5 lead in the 13th on Gordon’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly, driving in Correa, who began the inning at second as the automatic runner. Cleveland then tied it in the bottom half of the inning on Rosario’s two-out line single to center, driving in Ernie Clement, who started the inning as the runner at second and was sacrificed to third by Hedges.

–Field Level Media