Indians defeat Twins to forge tie atop AL Central

Shane Bieber pitched into the eighth inning, Jose Ramirez had three hits and the visiting Cleveland Indians pulled into a tie for the lead in the AL Central with a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.

Cleveland trailed Minnesota by 11 ½ games on June 3 before putting together a 41-16 run, the best record in the majors since June 4. The Twins are 30-28 in that stretch, and their division lead finally slipped away with their first four-game losing streak of the season.

All-Star MVP Bieber (12-4) allowed two home runs but struck out 11 batters in seven innings. The right-hander owns a 1.69 ERA with 37 strikeouts in 32 innings over his past four starts, pitching at least seven innings in each outing.

“We were all super excited coming into this series, and I think you’ve seen that the first few games,” Bieber said. “It’s just an incredible group to be able to do this … being back tied at the top is a huge deal for us, and really for everybody.”

Jason Castro and Eddie Rosario homered for Minnesota, which broke its franchise record for home runs in a season with its majors-leading total of 226.

Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 2: Carson Kelly hit his second home run of the game in the 11th inning after lashing a game-tying two-run shot in the ninth for visiting Arizona. Los Angeles had two hits, spoiling six innings of shutout ball from Walker Buehler.

Padres 7, Rockies 1: Rookie Cal Quantrill, formerly of Stanford, pitched shutout ball for a career-high seven innings for host San Diego, and fellow rookie Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run double to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games.

Astros 3, Orioles 2: Wade Miley pitched impressively against his former team and Jose Altuve hit a...