MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Midre Cummings figured he had a better chance of hitting the lottery.

"This team, we don't beat you with the long ball. And me? I never hit homers," Cummings said after his game-winning home run capped the biggest comeback in Minnesota's 40-year history, a 10-9 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night.

	Cummings

Cummings' homer off Steve Karsay (0-2) capped a three-run ninth-inning rally and made a winner of Eddie Guardado (3-1), who gave up David Justice's solo homer in the top of the inning.

"Tom Kelly always says, 'No matter the score, play all nine innings,' " Guardado said. "And look what happens when you do."

Matt Lawton hit a one-out double in the bottom of the ninth and scored on Ron Coomer's single. After Butch Huskey flied out to right for the second out, Cummings sent a 2-0 pitch the opposite way, 361 feet over the left-field wall.

"That's the first time in my life I hit a game-winning homer," Cummings said. "We had a fast guy on first and I was just trying to hit the ball into the gap. And I never thought I'd hit out the opposite way."

Karsay said the outside fastball was exactly where he wanted it.

"It I was going to get beat, it would be to the opposite field," he said.

Cummings' first homer since last Sept. 30 against Detroit also denied Charles Nagy of his first victory since April 11. Nagy gave up five runs and seven hits in six-plus innings.

Minnesota pulled to 8-7 and had the tying run in scoring position in the eighth when Cristian Guzman stole second and took third as Sandy Alomar's throw bounced into center as for an error.

Guzman stopped at third, but tried to score when center fielder Jolbert Cabrera held onto the ball in shallow center. Cabrera nailed Guzman at the plate for the third out.

Kelly was so thrilled over the comeback that he even forgave Guzman.

"That's an exciting play; you've got to admire his gumption," Kelly said.

The teams both batted around in a wild seventh inning that featured 10 runs, 12 hits and eight pitchers.

Jim Thome's ninth homer gave the Indians a 1-0 lead in the second, and he added a double in a three-run fifth. His homer was the Indians' only hit off Sean Bergman until the fifth, when they got five hits.

Thome and Richie Sexson hit back-to-back doubles to start the inning. Sexson advanced to third on a passed ball by Marcus Jensen and scored on Travis Fryman's groundout for a 3-1 lead, and Enrique Wilson added an RBI single.

Fryman led off the seventh with his fifth homer for a 5-1 lead and Bergman surrendered infield hits to Cabrera, Roberto Alomar and Wilson.

Cabrera scored on Wilson's hopper that first baseman Coomer fielded cleanly but inexplicably held onto as he faked a throw home. Coomer double-pumped to first as Wilson raced past the bag.

That was it for Bergman, who gave up eight runs and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Manny Ramirez capped the four-run inning with a two-run single off Hector Carrasco for a seemingly safe 8-1 lead.

Nagy wasn't the same after the long rest and surrendered four straight hits, ending his outing. Jensen's two-run homer made it 8-3.

"Our seventh inning got him out of his game," Fryman said.

Guzman's groundout off Tom Martin scored another run, and Lawton added an RBI single, making it 8-5 and bringing in Sean DePaula, who allowed a double steal with an amazingly slow windup to Coomer.

Coomer's groundout then scored Denny Hocking from third.

Paul Shuey, the Indians' fifth pitcher of the inning, gave up a run-scoring single to pinch-hitter Cummings that made it 8-7 before Jensen's inning-ending flyout.

Game notes
Minnesota rallied to win 10 times when trailing by six runs. ... Hitters are batting .358 against Bergman this season. ... The Cuban college team that lost one of its infielders to a defection during its U.S. visit was honored before the game. Members of Equipo Caribe and host St. Thomas University each received an autographed baseball from former Twins and Cuban natives Tony Oliva and Julio Becquer.