CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians seemed as if they were in for an easy night after scoring six runs in the first inning against the Minnesota Twins. Not so fast. The Indians needed every bit of their early advantage and survived a harrowing ninth inning for an 8-7 win and their fourth straight victory. "We kind of had to hang on for dear life, but we did," manager Terry Francona said. "We go home happy." Cleveland led 8-3 after five, but Minnesota scored four times in the final three innings. Vinnie Pestano, subbing as closer for the injured Chris Perez, allowed two runs in the ninth, including Chris Parmelees second homer of the game that cut the lead to one. Pestano struck out pinch-hitter Josh Willingham on a 3-2 pitch with the tying run on first for his third save. "We won the game," Pestano said. "Thats the bottom line. If I go out there and give up five runs and we win by one, we win by one." For most of the night, it didnt look like such dramatics would be necessary. Michael Bourn had three hits and three RBIs and Corey Kluber won his third consecutive start. Cleveland took advantage of five first-inning walks to score six runs. Jason Kipnis added three hits to pace the Indians, who are 8-2 since losing eight in a row. Minnesota starter P.J. Walters (2-3) walked five of the nine batters he faced, hit one and didnt get through the first inning when Cleveland had only two hits. Kipnis and Bourn both had two-run singles while Jason Giambi and Drew Stubbs drew bases-loaded walks. Kluber (6-4) gave up three runs in 5 2-3 innings. The right-hander has allowed four earned runs in 21 2-3 innings in his last three starts. "I wasnt as sharp as Id like to be, but there are games when you go out there and hopefully get through it and give your team a chance to win," he said. Kluber ended the Indians eight-game slide when he held Texas to one run in eight innings on June 11. He followed that with eight shutout innings against Washington on June 16. Kluber, who threw 100 pitches Saturday, gave up eight hits, struck out four and walked one. It appeared the game was under control when he was pulled but the Indians needed five relievers to finish the game. "There were some highs and lows," Francona said of his bullpens performance. "Fortunately, the highs won out." Minnesota scored in the seventh and Parmelee homered to lead off the eighth, making it an 8-5 game. The Twins had the tying run at the plate with one out but Rich Hill struck out Mauer and Ryan Doumit. Justin Morneau doubled to begin the ninth and scored on Oswaldo Arcias ground ball for the second out of the inning. Pestano walked Brian Dozier before finally striking out Winninhgam on his 34th pitch of the inning. "That was a really long inning," Francona said. "Anytime you get up near 30 pitches, thats a long inning." Mauer hit a two-run homer in the first for Minnesota, which has homered in seven straight games. Arcia added a solo shot in the fourth. Walters problems began when he walked Bourn and hit Mike Aviles to start the first. Kipnis double into the left corner tied the score. After Michael Brantley flied out, Carlos Santana and Mark Reynolds walked to load the bases. Walters then walked Giambi, who was batting .180, to force in a run. Lonnie Chisenhall flied out but a walk to Stubbs made it 4-2 and ended Walters night. Bourn greeted Anthony Swarzak with single to centre and Cleveland led 6-2. Walters threw 46 pitches, only 18 of which were strikes in two-thirds of an inning. He failed to pitch into the sixth inning for the first time in six starts this season. "Walters just didnt have it tonight," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It was just a bad night. He couldnt find anything. Hopefully, we wont see that again from him." Stubbs and Bourn added RBI singles in the fifth off Ryan Pressly. Kipnis, who singled, doubled and tripled, is batting .379 (25-for-66) in 19 games in June. Trevor Plouffe added an RBI single for the Twins in the seventh. Minnesota came to town riding a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox but lost to the Indians 5-1 on Friday. The Twins are 13-7 against Cleveland since June 2, 2012. Indians first baseman Nick Swisher, who has missed six games with a sore left shoulder, will probably return for Sundays series finale or Monday when the Indians open a series in Baltimore. Swisher, who is in a 6-for-55 slump, took batting practice Saturday. NOTES: Perez (strained right rotator cuff) will throw a simulated game Sunday at Double-A Akron. He will make another minor league rehab appearance next week. ... Francona said RHP Zach McAllister (sprained middle finger) will play catch at 120 feet in the next couple of days. Theres no timetable for when McAllister will throw off the mound. ... Twins OF Austin Hicks (left hamstring strain) could start a rehab assignment at Triple-A Rochester on Sunday. He has been on the 15-day disabled list since June 10. ... Twins OF Wilkin Ramirez (concussion) played five innings Friday for Single-A Fort Myers. He has been on the 7-day DL since May 26. ... The teams wrap up their three-game series Sunday. Twins RHP Mike Pelfrey (3-6) takes on RHP Carlos Carrasco (0-2).Mike Scott Jersey . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008 and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said. George Springer Astros Jersey . -- The proud fathers huddled near the Dallas Stars dressing room, smiling, laughing and telling stories while wearing replica green sweaters of their sons team. http://www.baseballastrosproshop.com/josh-reddick-astros-jersey/ . -- Anaheim Ducks defenceman Luca Sbisa will be out at least six weeks with a torn tendon in his right hand. Jake Marisnick Astros Jersey . Canada is now down to its 22-player limit, although but players wont be registered until Christmas Day. Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury. Yuli Gurriel Astros Jersey . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont.Nico Rosberg is among a number of F1 drivers who hope Pirellis wet-weather testing this year produces a better extreme tyre for 2017.Sundays Brazilian Grand Prix was red flagged twice and featured five safety car periods as race control struggled to gauge whether the wet conditions were suitable for racing. Several drivers complained of aquaplaning, with Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen all spinning into the barriers during the race.The conditions were some of the worse F1 has seen this season, but a number of drivers pointed to the extreme-wet tyres tendency to aquaplane.They are very easy to aquaplane with, its not like its raining a lot, Raikkonen said following his incident. Weve said that many times, but it obviously also depends on the circuit and many things.If I compare to ten/twelve year ago those tyres could cope with this kind of rain with no issues, no aquaplaning. The aquaplaning is the biggest issue, if we have a bit of standing water we get zero grip. Thats it.Romain Grosjean, who spun on his way to the grid, added: The extreme tyre is a very poor tyre and there is no grip. You have to take a huge amount of risk to go to the intermediates because they are just faster. But, yes you cannot control the car in a straight line.Part of the problem has been a lack of wet weather tyre testing since Pirelli returned to the sport as the sole tyre supplier in 2011, but this year the Italian tyre company has completed six days of dedicated wet-weather testing to develop its 2017 tyre. Rosberg, who managed to catch a big slide when he aquaplaned on the uphill run to the pit straight in Brazil, hopes the dedicated wet-weather tests will produce better tyres.Its difficult because its ccompletely unpredictable when you go through a little bit more water -- you dont know whats going to happen, he said.ddddddddddddThat makes it really challenging, but they [Pirelli] know that and they are working on it at the moment.Thats why they have been doing wet tests, to make some progress for next year. It would be good for the racing also, because then you dont need to red flag it and you can let the race go on. It will be a good thing.Red Bull boss Christian Horner also hopes progress can be made ahead of 2017, when Pirelli faces an even tougher challenge with a wider footprint that will be more susceptible to aquaplaning.You could see that the drivers were having big issues with aquaplaning on the extreme and the inter. Kimi crashed in front of us on the extreme. [Marcus] Ericsson was on the inter. So we conducted some wet testing for Pirelli at the beginning of the year to try and help, and it seems like there is still room for improvement on the extreme in extreme conditions.However, Lewis Hamilton, who won the race in Brazil without a single mistake, said the conditions were not as bad as they looked.This is Formula One and the rain conditions are the trickiest conditions. If everyone just went round and didnt make mistakes it would be too easy and then everyone could do it. We are going at some serious speeds and there is a lot of water to disperse by the tyres and the tyre just struggles; the faster we go, the harder it is for the tyres. This wasnt a particularly difficult race in terms of being wet, theres been much much worse races in terms of aquaplaning. ' ' '
