Facing a heavy infield shift with two outs in the third inning, Carlos Santana laid down a perfect bunt.
He picked up a single on the play, but the Twins were lucky — it was the only time during the Indians’ 8-2 win on Tuesday night that a ball hit by Santana didn’t fly over everyone’s heads.
“It’s basically free,” Santana said. “My first at-bat, I got a double, and then early in the count, I said, ‘Oh, they’re playing the shift,’ and did a bunt.”
The first baseman finished 4-for-5 — including a home run off Minnesota starter Yohan Pino that traveled 415 feet into the right-field concourse at Target Field. He also helped the Tribe get out to an early 3-0 lead in the second by swatting a double off the top of the right-field wall to begin the inning.
After that double in the second, Pino proceeded to hit Lonnie Chisenhall in the lower body with a slider, and then Nick Swisher loaded the bases with a single to center. One Yan Gomes strikeout later, David Murphy singled to bring two runners home, and then Mike Aviles pushed the lead to three with a sacrifice fly to score Swisher.
Meanwhile, Indians starter Danny Salazar employed an effective bend-but-don’t-break strategy in his first Major League start since May 15.
Officially added to the roster earlier in the day, the 24-year-old righty loaded the bases with three straight one-out walks in the second. That’s when catcher Gomes came to the rescue with a quick mound visit.
“He told me to stay back and breathe and focus on the pitch I wanted to throw,” Salazar said. “That was good. Because if he doesn’t come out, I wouldn’t go back and try to rest for a couple seconds.”
After a few deep breaths, Salazar escaped by fooling Sam Fuld and Danny Santana with changeups for strikeouts in consecutive at-bats.
While the offspeed stuff helped early, Salazar ramped up the heat when he wanted.
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