Baker faces three over the minimum, tosses two-hitter as Twins rough up Indians 11-0

Baker has two-hitter, leads Twins over Indians

MINNEAPOLIS — Scott Baker pitched a two-hitter, Jason Kubel homered and had five RBIs and the Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians 11-0 on Friday night.

Baker, who faced three batters above the minimum, received plenty of support from Kubel and Joe Mauer as the Twins pounded out 12 hits and chased Justin Masterson (3-4) after just 3 1-3 innings. Kubel and Mauer each had three hits.

The Twins did most of their damage in the fourth inning, taking advantage of an error and two walks to score six runs.

Joe Crede reached on an error to start the fourth and scored on Alexi Casilla’s blooper down the right-field line. Mauer, Kubel and Michael Cuddyer drove in the other runs in the inning.

Mauer extended his hitting streak to 11 games and raised his league-leading batting average to .375.

Kubel hit a two-run homer in the sixth and drove in five runs for the third time this season.

The Twins are trying to remain within striking distance of the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central and needed a strong outing from Baker (10-7). Baker allowed six runs in 4 1-3 innings against the Tigers on Aug. 9 in his last start, squandering an early three-run lead and an opportunity to close the gap on the division leaders.

But on Friday he struck out five and needed just 94 pitches in the gem.

The Twins were unable to gain ground on the Tigers, however, as Detroit beat the Kansas City Royals and remain five games in front of Minnesota.

Cleveland has lost three straight, scoring just one run in the three games. A bad night got worse for the Tribe when manager Eric Wedge was ejected after an animated argument with home-plate umpire Bob Davidson in the sixth inning.

Davidson originally ruled that Justin Morneau foul-tipped strike three into the glove of catcher Kelly Shoppach.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire argued that the ball hit the dirt first and showed Davidson the ball as evidence. Davidson agreed with Gardenhire, bringing an angry Wedge out to argue.

Wedge and Davidson yelled at each other nose-to-nose at home plate for about 30 seconds after the manger was tossed.

Asdrubl Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta had the only two hits for Cleveland.

Baker pitched his first shutout since flirting with a perfect game and tossing a one-hitter on Aug. 31, 2007, against Kansas City. The right-hander enduced several lazy flyball outs and is 8-2 since June 1.

NOTES: Delmon Young made all three Twins’ outs in the fourth, striking out for the first out and grounding into a double play for the final two. … Expect the Indians to begin determining which minor leaguers to promote to the majors sometime next week. Wedge said there are a number of players the club would like to observe at the major league level, but there is no rush to get them here. “We don’t want to call guys up just to call them up,” he said. “A lot of the guys we want to look at are already here.” … Twins SS Orlando Cabrera had his league-leading 22-game hitting streak snapped.