Cleveland Guardians at Minnesota Twins: Final Score & Recap

The Cleveland Guardians handed the Minnesota Twins a 9-2 defeat at Target Field on September 13, 2026, a result the DiamondIQ model's estimate made look increasingly inevitable as the game progressed, with Minnesota's win probability falling from an even 50 percent before first pitch all the way to 0 percent by the final out. Cleveland spread its 14 hits across multiple innings, scoring in the first, third, fourth, sixth, and ninth to build a lead that Minnesota never seriously threatened. The Guardians finished with nine runs on 14 hits and committed one error, while the Twins managed just six hits and crossed the plate only twice.

The game's most consequential sequence came in waves of winning plays that systematically erased any hope of a Twins comeback. Kody Clemens delivered the biggest single swing of the night in the bottom of the third, a double off Tanner Bibee that added 11.6 percentage points of win probability to Minnesota's ledger, though it amounted to little in the final accounting. The Guardians answered with a pair of devastating top-half explosions: Jo Adell hit a home run off Joe Ryan in the third that shifted the needle 9.8 percentage points in Cleveland's favor, and Travis Bazzana followed with a two-hit sixth-inning home run off Travis Adams worth 10.6 percentage points, effectively sealing the outcome. Steven Kwan's double and Bazzana's single against Ryan in the fourth — worth 8.3 and 7.9 percentage points respectively — stacked additional damage during a two-run frame that stretched the lead further.

Travis Bazzana led all players with a combined WPA of plus-16.8 percent and a RE24 of plus-2.3, while Steven Kwan matched the RE24 figure and posted plus-11.2 percent WPA of his own, making the Guardians' one-two punch at the top of the order the decisive factor offensively. On the mound, Tanner Bibee was the game's most valuable pitcher by WPA at plus-16.7 percent despite surrendering the Clemens double, limiting Minnesota effectively enough to preserve the comfortable margin through his outing. Erik Sabrowski and Hunter Gaddis contributed plus-1.6 and plus-1.1 percent WPA respectively in relief, finishing off a clean collective performance for a Cleveland staff that held the Twins to just two runs on a night when their offense was never able to find a foothold.