Twins lose pitching duel 2-1 to Guardians

Fans of good pitching got a show Saturday night at Target Field. Unfortunately for the Minnesota Twins and their fans, they were on the wrong side of it.

Rookie Simeon Woods Richardson, who struggled in his last two starts, got back on track with a quality start, but he made two mistakes and suffered the loss in a 2-1 Twins defeat to the Cleveland Guardians.

His first mistake was a middle-middle fastball on the second pitch of the game, which Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan hit out for his 12th homer of the year to spot the Guardians a 1-0 lead out of the gates.

The second came leading off the sixth, when catcher Bo Naylor hit a first-pitch fastball into the right field stands to make it 2-0.

On a night when Woods Richardson tossed a career-high seven innings, allowing only two other baserunners while striking out seven, those two mistakes were all it took because Guardians righty Gavin Williams had his own bounce-back game and stymied Twins hitters.

Williams, who was making just his eighth start of the season due to elbow inflammation, put together one of his best outings, allowing just four hits and one run to get the win.

While the Twins did push across a run in the sixth, plating Willi Castro on a groundout after his leadoff double, a missed opportunity in the third proved costly. Ryan Jeffers led off that inning with a single. He and Austin Martin then made it two on with nobody out thanks to an error on Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor. Despite that great opportunity, the Twins failed to break through, getting three consecutive groundouts.

The Twins failed to even get a baserunner against Cleveland’s bullpen and that did it.

With the loss, the Twins are again 2.5 games back of the Guardians for the division lead.

David Festa (2-2, 5.55 ERA) is set to start for the Twins on Sunday against Guardians righty Tanner Bibee (9-4, 3.48 ERA). First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m.