After 11 absolutely brutal baseball games that ended the exact same way, the Cleveland Indians finally ended their losing streak on Wednesday with a 6-2 victory over Minnesota.
Staring down a chance to tie the franchise's all-time record of 12 consecutive losses, Indians pitcher Justin Masterson turned in a dominant performance to keep Minnesota hitters at bay all afternoon. Now 8-10 on the year after the victory, Masterson yielded a mere three hits over seven innings to Twins batters, and bounced back in a huge way from being shelled the last two times he took the mound (9.2 IP, 15 ER, 6 BB).
Representing only the third time the Indians scored at least six runs in a game since their streak began on July 27, Cleveland racked up 11 hits on the day, and was led by a 4-for-4 performance from outfielder Shin-Soo Choo. Choo added an RBI double to open the scoring in the first inning, and then stepped to plate and delivered once again one inning later with an RBI single to left. The productive day bumped Choo's season average exactly seven points from .284 to .291, and marked only his second multi-hit effort over his last 13 games.
Up next for the Indians is another daunting stretch, as the team will play host to Boston for a four-game weekend series starting Thursday before flying out West for a nine-game road trip against AL West opponents.
Head over to Let's Go Tribe for more Indians coverage, and be sure to visit Twinkie Town for more on the Twins. For more MLB news and analysis, check out Baseball Nation.