CLEVELAND — It’s the type of matchup that baseball fans live for — power versus power, an electric arm versus one of the best players of nearly the last full decade.

José Ramírez knew it when he connected with Jhoan Duran’s curveball. He dropped his bat and started pounding the “CLE,” written on his chest.

That solo home run in the eighth inning, which came right after Ryan Jeffers and Carlos Correa had caught a runner trying to steal, was the difference in the Twins’ 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night at Progressive Field.

It was another slow day for the Twins offense on Friday, though they did, finally, mercifully, snap their streak of 28 scoreless innings in the third with Alex Kirilloff’s solo home run.

For much of the game, Kirilloff’s hit was the only one starter Triston McKenzie yielded. He would give up one more — a Max Kepler double — in his outing, which lasted 6 2/3 innings.

Kirilloff’s third home run of the season had given the Twins a lead that they held until the sixth, a strange inning which featured a shift violation by Correa and a popup that Jeffers couldn’t locate.

That was the final inning of Simeon Woods Richardson’s start — he threw 5 1/3 frames in a bounceback performance but was tagged with a run when David Fry got ahold of an 0-2 Steven Okert pitch and took it out for a two-run homer.

The Guardians held that lead until the Twins’ offense finally showed some life in the eighth. Jose Miranda’s soft single began a rally and pinch runner Austin Martin eventually came around to score the game-tying run when pinch-hitter Kyle Farmer delivered a clutch double.

But after Duran allowed Ramírez’s 10th home run of the season, the Twins’ offense went quietly in the ninth inning.

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