Twins, frustrated by umpires, fall to Guardians on José Ramírez home run off Jhoan Duran

CLEVELAND – The boxscore will show the Twins lost their fourth consecutive game Friday, a 3-2 defeat to the Cleveland Guardians after José Ramírez hit a go-ahead solo homer off Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning.

It’s the pitches that do not show up in the boxscore that drew the Twins’ ire in the final two innings, upset with plate umpire Roberto Ortiz’s strike zone.

Willi Castro was called out on strikes in the top of the eighth inning on a slider well off the plate, potentially costing the Twins a run when Kyle Farmer, the next batter, hit a game-tying RBI double. Duran’s first two pitches to Ramírez should’ve been called strikes, according to pitch tracking systems, before his fourth pitch was launched into the right-field seats.

In the ninth inning, Carlos Correa saw his nine-pitch at-bat against Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase end on a called third strike, a 100-mph cutter below his knees.

“It’s frustrating for our players when late in the game every meaningful call did go against us,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The guy that hits the home run — he’s hit a lot of big home runs in his career, he’s a great player — but when the first two pitches of the at-bat are strikes and they both get called balls, that’s hard to swallow.”

There was live music playing outside Progressive Field and postgame fireworks were already on the schedule as the Guardians debuted their City Connect uniforms. Ramírez became the life of the party with his homer off Duran, connecting on an inside curveball for his first hit off the Twins closer in seven career at-bats. After Ramírez gestured to his teammates and started his home run trot, the announced crowd of 30,121 joined together to chant his first name.

Duran, who surrendered his first run of the season and only his third hit, says he didn’t think too much about the first two pitches of the at-bat that were called balls.

“I don’t pay too much attention to that,” Duran said. “If he calls a ball, it’s a ball. If he calls a strike, it’s a strike.”

The Twins rallied from a one-run deficit in the top of the eighth inning. After Jose Miranda singled, pinch-runner Austin Martin swiped second base when Castro was called out on strikes on a full-count pitch. Kyle Farmer, pinch-hitting for Edouard Julien when the Guardians brought in lefty reliever Tim Herrin, thumped a two-strike curveball into the left-center gap to tie the score.

After leaving two men on base in the eighth inning, the Twins didn’t produce another baserunner. When Correa was called out on strikes, he hopped in the batter’s box as teammates yelled from the dugout.

“I’ve never been tossed out of a game, and maybe there’s a situation that would call for it, but I just think their job is too hard for me to be harsh on them,” Correa said. “It is what it is. Sometimes, I get calls. Sometimes, I don’t. You move on.”

BOXSCORE: Cleveland 3, Twins 2

The Twins produced only four hits Friday. Alex Kirilloff homered in the third inning, the Twins’ first run since the first inning Tuesday, which ended the fourth-longest scoring drought in team history, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The Twins had a 34-inning scoreless streak from 2014-15, and they were one inning shy from matching the longest drought in a single season (1978 and 1964).

“When we get something going, Willi Castro gets rung up on strikes on a clear ball,” Baldelli said. “The combination of things, I know there are some guys that are upset in the room and I’m not happy about it either. That’s tough to take and in one-run, very tight, low-scoring games, sometimes those things mean especially a lot. Today they ended up coming into play in a big way, unfortunately.

“We’ve got to play better. If we don’t want those things to affect the game, the things I was just referencing, we have to create some separation in the game and then those things don’t end up mattering that much.”