A day after Byron Buxton supplied all the offense for the Minnesota Twins in a one-run victory over the Cleveland Guardians, the rest of the Twins’ lineup decided to pinch in.

The bottom three hitters in the Twins lineup — Kody Clemens, Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis — combined for six hits and four runs, leading the Twins to a 5-4 victory over the Guardians on Sunday.

The Twins, exorcising some of their recent one-run game history at Progressive Field, won a series in Cleveland for the first time since September 2023 by winning the final two games. The Twins entered this weekend with 25 one-run games against the Guardians since 2022, and they had a 5-20 record in those games.

It was the Twins’ first series victory in nearly a month. Since beating Boston on April 14 for their eighth victory in nine games, the Twins had dropped 15 of 20 games before winning the final two games of this series.

Perhaps, just as improbably, the Twins won a bullpen game. It was necessitated after Taj Bradley went on the 15-day injured list Saturday because of a chest injury. Yoendrys Gómez, who joined the team Friday after he was designated for assignment by the Rays, pitched a perfect ninth inning to earn his third career save.

“I think the credit goes to our baseball ops group because this is a guy we just acquired,” manager Derek Shelton told reporters in Cleveland. “We’re continuing to observe and make decisions on our bullpen. ... Really appreciate, in Gómez’s case, he had a layoff in Tampa, then [pitched] three days in a row.”

When the Twins won 2-1 in 11 innings Saturday, it was only the 23rd time in the past 126 years that a team won an extra-inning game with two or fewer hits.

So, maybe they were overdue for some offense.

During a four-run fifth inning, the Twins sent nine hitters to the plate and delivered five hits with a runner in scoring position. With the score tied at 1-1, Clemens started the rally when he lined a leadoff double to right field, and Lee followed with an RBI single to center.

After Lee swiped second base, it was Lewis’ turn to break out of a cold spell. Lewis, who totaled one hit over his previous 22 at-bats and was recently benched for two games, drilled an RBI double down the left field line.

Buxton added an infield single before Josh Bell and Austin Martin produced consecutive two-out RBI singles. Bell, who had struck out in his previous six at-bats, delivered his run-scoring hit in a 0-2 count, seeing three elevated fastballs in his at-bat, and Martin connected on a two-strike sweeper.

“A complete team victory,” Shelton said after the Twins won their fifth consecutive Mother’s Day game.

Twins hitters whiffed on 39% of their swings against Cleveland right-hander Gavin Williams, but they still tallied 10 hits and five runs against him. Williams, who has surrendered at least five runs in three of his past four starts, is tied for the American League lead in strikeouts (66).

Clemens, who entered the game hitless in nine at-bats on the road trip, hit a leadoff double to open the third inning. He advanced to third on a single from Lee before scoring on a wild pitch.

The Twins used six pitchers in their bullpen game and quieted the Cleveland lineup despite issuing five walks.

Andrew Morris, pitching on back-to-back days for the first time in his career, tossed a clean first inning in his first career start. Kendry Rojas, making his second big-league appearance, gave up five hits and three walks in 3 1/3 innings, but he gave up only one run and earned his first MLB victory.

“Dream came true,” Rojas during a postgame Twins TV interview.

Three of the first Guardians hitters reached base against Rojas in the third inning, which included an RBI single from José Ramírez. Rojas walked another batter to load the bases with two outs, but he escaped further trouble when Angel Martínez flew out to center.

Travis Adams replaced Rojas with one out in the fifth inning, making his season debut after starting the season on the injured list, and four consecutive batters reached base with two outs after two walks and two hits. One run scored when Martínez grounded an RBI single through the right side of the infield.

But Adams left the bases loaded when he struck out new Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey, acquired in a trade with the Giants, in a five-pitch at-bat where Adams threw all changeups. Bailey swung and missed at three of the pitches.

After Anthony Banda retired all four batters he faced, the Guardians started the eighth inning with a pair of bloop singles against righty reliever Luis García. A run scored after a sacrifice bunt and a weak groundout, shaving the Twins’ lead to one run, but Rhys Hoskins bounced an inning-ending grounder to Lewis with two runners in scoring position.

Cleveland left 12 runners on base.

Funderburk sent to Saints

To make room on the active roster for Rojas, the Twins demoted left-hander Kody Funderburk to Class AAA St. Paul. Funderburk, who pitched in the previous two games in Cleveland and thus was unavailable to pitch Sunday anyway, has arguably been the Twins’ most effective reliever this season with a 2.81 ERA, but he also leads the Twins relievers with 13 walks, including two to start the ninth inning Saturday.

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