Cleveland, OH (Best E Casino) - Cliff Lee struck out 10 batters in eight innings as the Cleveland Indians hung on for a 5-4 victory in the three-game series opener with the Minnesota Twins.

Lee (14-2) yielded two runs on six hits while Rafael Perez closed out the ninth for his first save.

Franklin Gutierrez was 2-for-3 with a home run and a double while Grady Sizemore was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored to help snap Cleveland's two-game slide.

Livan Hernandez (10-7) went eight innings allowing five runs on 12 hits and three walks while striking out six for the Twins, who have lost five in a row.

Denard Span was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI while Justin Morneau homered for Minnesota.

Sizemore tagged up all the way from second base at the expense of Twins center fielder Carlos Gomez for a 1-0 lead in the first. Sizemore, who led off with a single, moved to second on a Jamey Carroll base hit before Ben Francisco hit a sacrifice fly to center field.

Gomez sprinted to straightaway center to make the leaping catch, but slammed into the wall after landing on the warning track. He flipped the ball to left fielder Delmon Young while laying on his back, but not in time to get Sizemore at the plate. After Gomez was carted off the field, Jason Kubel came in off the bench to play right field while Span moved over to center. Span, however, would have a scary moment of his own later in the inning.

After a Jhonny Peralta single, Shin-Soo Choo hit a sacrifice fly to score Carroll. Casey Blake followed with a single before Kelly Shoppach sent a ball to deep center that Span chased down, but could not hold on to for the final out. The ball came loose as he slammed into the wall allowing Peralta and Blake to score. Span was slow to recover, but remained in the game.

Gutierrez's lead-off homer in the second, his fourth, made it 5-0 Indians.

Minnesota got on the board in the third on a Span RBI single to score Kubel, who hit a two-out double. The Twins cut the lead to 5-2 with a Joe Mauer two- out RBI double in the sixth to score Span, who doubled with one out.

Morneau ripped a Masa Kobayashi pitch over the wall in right, his 16th, to make it 5-4 in the top of the ninth. Mauer, who led off with a single, also scored. Kobayashi was pulled one batter later after Young doubled to center.

Perez retired all three batters he faced in the ninth to preserve the win.

Game Notes

Hernandez threw a season-high 119 pitches...Cleveland has won eight of its last 11 games...Minnesota leads the season series 6-4 and fell to 9-2 on games after off days...Lee's win gives him the most in the majors with 14 and is the first Indians pitcher to start 14-2 or better since Gaylord Perry was 15-1 in 1974...Cleveland has homered in 11 consecutive games and 19 of their last 20...Carroll left the game in the eighth with a mild hamstring strain while Gomez was taken to Lutheran Hospital for further examination with a lower back injury.