Guardians contain Twins' offense to avoid sweep

Will Brennan had a double with two RBIs, five Cleveland pitchers combined for a two-hitter and the Guardians edged the visiting Minnesota Twins 2-1 to salvage the finale of a three-game series Wednesday afternoon.

Andres Gimenez had a double and scored twice for Cleveland (67-73), which snapped a three-game losing streak with the victory over first-place Minnesota. The Guardians also won the season-series with the Twins, taking seven of the 13 games.

Rookie right-hander Gavin Williams (2-5), making his 15th major league start, picked up his first win since July 8 against the Kansas City Royals, snapping a nine-start winless streak.

Williams, who carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and endured a 66-minute rain delay in the third, allowed one run on one hit over five innings. He walked four and struck out four.

Emmanuel Clase pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 38th save. Sam Hentges, Reynaldo Lopez and Nick Sandlin each followed Williams with a scoreless inning of relief.

Minnesota (73-67), which amassed 28 runs and 31 hits in winning the first two games of the series, managed just two singles in the loss.

The Twins finished their six-game road trip, which began at Texas, with a 4-2 mark. They return home to open a series with the New York Mets on Friday holding a six-game lead in the American League Central with 22 games remaining.

Cleveland's Joe Ryan (10-9) gave up two runs on four hits over four innings with one walk and three strikeouts.

Cleveland took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Gimenez led off with a ground-rule double down the left field line, advanced to third on a flyout by Gabriel Arias and scored on a single by Brennan.

The Guardians extended the lead to 2-0 in the fourth. Gimenez singled with one out and stole second. After Arias struck out, Brennan doubled into the gap in right-center to drive in Gimenez.

Minnesota cut it to 2-1 in the fifth when Willi Castro led off with a walk, stole second and scored on a one-out ground-ball single to left by Andrew Stevenson.