CLEVELAND — Brayan Rocchio singled in Andrés Giménez with the winning run as the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians scored three times in the 10th inning to beat the Minnesota Twins 5-4 on Wednesday night, reducing their magic number for clinching a playoff berth to one.
Kyle Manzardo and Will Brennan had RBI singles off Ronny Henriquez (1-1) before Michael Tonkin entered and gave up Rocchio's second career walk-off hit, a chopper to right through a drawn-in infield.
''It's awesome being with all these guys on the team,'' Rocchio said. ''That's a special moment for me. I talked to (manager Stephen) Vogt before the game and he told me, ‘Hey, today you have a chance to win the game,' and you saw what happened.''
The Guardians, who now have a major league-leading 41 comeback victories this season, can lock up a postseason spot Thursday with a win over Minnesota.
Josh Naylor hit a pair of solo homers and scored three times for Cleveland, which leads the division by six games over Kansas City with nine games remaining. Naylor's first shot was a 445-foot rocket to right-center, giving him his initial 30-homer season.
''The biggest game of the year and look what we do,'' Brennan said. ''The youngest guys on the team get it done. These guys are so prepared, it's unbelievable.''
The Twins took a 4-2 lead in the top of the 10th on Carlos Correa's two-run single off Hunter Gaddis (5-3). Correa finished with four RBIs and extended his hitting streak to 16 games, matching his career high with Houston in 2019.
''I was excited about that at-bat and it was a good moment, but it wasn't good enough,'' said Correa, who is batting .377 with five homers and 15 RBIs in his last 17 games. ''You just have to keep fighting. It's a tough sport.''