Twins head home for final series after 4-2 win in Cleveland

CLEVELAND _ The calendar has turned to October, and the Twins aren’t preparing for offseason vacations yet. And that is progress.tmpplchld But they are not satisfied. They want to put those vacations off for a while. They want another road trip. They want to be part of the postseason.tmpplchld They pulled off a white knuckle wonder on Thursday, beating the Indians 4-2 to keep those dreams alive.tmpplchld After losing a 1-0 lead in the seventh, the Twins tied the game in the eighth and were rewarded with gifts in the ninth.tmpplchld Trevor Plouffe reached with one out when second baseman Jose Ramirez _ who angered them one night before by flipping his bat after a home run _ bounced a throw to first.tmpplchld Plouffe was replaced by pinch runner Eduardo Nunez, who raced to third when Eddie Rosario floated a single to right. Lonnie Chisenhall’s throw from right hit Nunez in the head and bounced away, allowing Rosario to move to second.tmpplchld With Torii Hunter at the plate, Indians right-hander Cody Allen threw a wild pitch, allowing Nunez to score the lead run. Hunter then hit a sacrifice fly to right, allowing Rosario to score.tmpplchld Kevin Jepsen gave up a single in the ninth but still converted his 15th save, 10th as a Twin.tmpplchld They won three of four in Cleveland and have won eight of their last 11 games. They now head home to play host to AL Central champion Kansas City in the final three games of the season. The Royals are playing for home field advantage. The Twins need to win all three games to make things interesting.tmpplchld They Twins don’t control their own destiny and will need the Astros and Angels, teams ahead of them in the wild-card standings, to falter and crack that door open for them. But they have a chance, which hasn’t been the case the past four seasons of 90-loss baseball.tmpplchld The Twins trailed 2-1 in the eighth when they got a contribution from an unlikely source. With one out, Danny Santana was sent to pinch hit for Kurt Suzuki. Santana was 0-for-10 as a pinch hitter. The Twins, for that matter, were batting .116 as a team in pinch hit situations. It was an area they invested little in during the season.tmpplchld But Santana drew a walk, bringing Eduardo Escobar to the plate. On a 1-1 pitch, Santana took off for second as Escobar shot a ground ball inside the third base line for a double. Santana scored the tying run from first.tmpplchld The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when they managed their first hits against Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer, who was named the starter on Wednesday in place of Josh Tomlin. Bauer held the Twins to two walks over the first three innings, but Joe Mauer hit a one-out double and scored when Trevor Plouffe blasted a ground rule double to center field.tmpplchld Bauer went back to shutting down the Twins, which would have been more concerning if Duffey wasn’t on the mound for the Twins.tmpplchld The rookie right-hander was cooking once again. He struggled to spot his fastball at times, but the curveball was fine. Duffey threw the curve twice on 3-2 counts to get strikeouts and had his way with the Indians.tmpplchld Until the seventh.tmpplchld Duffey needed nine pitches to strike out Chisenhall, then Abraham Almonte grounded a single to center. On a 2-1 pitch _ a fastball thrown where it shouldn’t be thrown _ Robert Perez launched a two-run homer to center. Cleveland led 2-1 and threatened to severely damage the Twins’ wild-card chances.tmpplchld But they didn’t.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 Star Tribune (Minneapolis)tmpplchld Visit the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) at www.startribune.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld