Turnabout Is Fair Play for the Twins

The Minnesota Twins found themselves on the winning side this weekend.

Rick Reed had his most effective outing of the season Sunday, helping the Twins complete a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians with a 4-2 victory at Minneapolis.

Last week, the Indians swept a four-game series from Minnesota at Jacobs Field.

“We just didn’t play very well in Cleveland,” Reed said. “Once we got here, we started playing good baseball.”

The victory completed an 8-1 homestand for the Twins, who moved back into first place in the AL Central. Cleveland left home with an 11-1 record and returned a week later after going 0-6 on a trip to Chicago and Minnesota.

“It’s almost like we switched roles,” Cleveland’s Matt Lawton said. “At home, we got the key hits with guys in scoring position, and they didn’t.”

Reed (2-1) limited the Indians to a two-run homer by Jim Thome in 61/3 innings, his longest outing this season.

The Indians held a brief team meeting after the game, and Manager Charlie Manuel told the team to not overreact.

“I told them to get their heads up because we’ve got a long way to go,” Manuel said. “I’ve been wanting to talk to them for a couple of days now.”

Boston 12-8, Kansas City 2-7--Johnny Damon highlighted his huge weekend at Kansas City by hitting a grand slam to help the Red Sox complete a doubleheader sweep. Damon also homered in the first game and Manny Ramirez homered twice.

The Red Sox have won six in a row, their best streak since winning six consecutive games in May 2000.

Facing the team he played for from 1995-2000, Damon went eight for 13, scored seven runs and drove in six during the series. He had four hits to help Boston complete a three-game sweep.

In the first game, John Burkett scattered seven hits in five innings to win in his season debut. Burkett, who began the season on the disabled list with a sore shoulder, gave up two runs, struck out two and walked one.

New York 9, Toronto 2--Roger Clemens was simply dominating at Yankee Stadium, taking a one-hit shutout into the eighth inning.

After going 20-3 last season and winning a record sixth Cy Young Award, Clemens (2-2) has struggled this season. Following Shannon Stewart’s two-out single in the third, Clemens didn’t give up another hit until Toronto scored on doubles by Felipe Lopez and Stewart.

Clemens gave up two runs and three hits in 71/3 innings, struck out eight and walked three. He lowered his earned-run average from 6.46 to 5.52 and improved to 22-11 against the Blue Jays, and 7-1 since they traded him to the Yankees three years ago.

Seattle 5, Texas 3--Alex Rodriguez homered twice in a game against the Mariners for the second time this season, but his offense wasn’t enough for the Rangers at Safeco Field.

The Rangers fell to 5-13 for the team’s worst start. They have lost 12 of their last 14 against Seattle and are 6-21 since Rodriguez left the Mariners after the 2000 season.

Rodriguez has hit five of his eight homers this season against his former team. Fans at Seattle booed him and tossed paper money in all three games of the series.

Chicago 11, Detroit 8--Pinch-hitter Ray Durham hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning at Chicago and the White Sox won for the 10th time in 12 games. Bobby Higginson homered, doubled and drove in four runs for Detroit.

Tampa Bay 2, Baltimore 1--Ben Grieve hit a tiebreaking, run-scoring single in the eighth inning at St. Petersburg, Fla. Jason Tyner hit a two-out single against Sidney Ponson and went to second on Randy Winn’s single. Grieve drove in Tyner with a single against Erik Bedard.