In what was supposed to be a night to celebrate another milestone for Miguel Cabrera in his last season, but one miscommunication led to an avalanche the Detroit Tigers ultimately paid for.The Minnesota Twins hit a grand slam and scored five runs in the sixth inning, the only inning in which they scored, to defeat the Tigers 5-3 on Tuesday night.Matt Wallner’s 450-foot grand slam in the bottom of the sixth flipped the game in the Twins’ favor, marking another game where the Tigers’ bullpen gave up a lead that the offense didn’t have the firepower to come back from.
BOX SCORE: Twins 5, Tigers 3“The lead-off walk kickstarted the entire momentum,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch told Bally Sports Detroit after the game. “Then obviously nothing went well that inning. It was a big inning and a tough one to navigate.”
Cabrera hit his 509th homer in the top of the second inning on a fastball down the middle, tying Gary Sheffield for 26th all time and giving the Tigers an early 2-0 lead.
With that homer, the Tigers extended their streak of 10 straight games with a home run. Overall, Cabrera went 1-for-3 with a walk in his last game against the AL Central rivals.
It would be the only runs the Tigers would score for the next six innings, as they went from having five hits in the first six innings of play to only two the rest of the way.Pitching wise, everything was going well for the Tigers with starter Alex Faedo going the first five innings with six strikeouts while only giving up one hit and one walk after 81 pitches.In the bottom of the sixth, José Cisnero came in and immediately walked Jorge Polanco. On a routine pop-up between home and third base in foul territory, Eric Haase and Matt Vierling miscommunicated as the ball fell to the grass.
“It looked like Haase didn’t see it from the beginning,” Hinch said. “We could see it in the dugout. It was twilight, I know Matty (Vierling) had to come a long way, and nobody took command of it. That’s tough especially on the heels of a walk, and then you have the pop-up, and then (Max) Kepler makes us pay by getting the base hit, and off they go.”
Things went from bad to worse when Kepler hit a ball to right field, then Royce Lewis singled to bring Polanco home and sent Cisnero back to the dugout.Will Vest came in and allowed a chopper down the middle to Carlos Correa, which led to the 450-foot bomb to center field from Wallner for his first career grand slam. In all, both Cisnero and Vest gave up a walk, four hits and five runs without even getting an out.The Twins loaded the bases again in the bottom of the seventh inning, but this time the Tigers turned a double play to keep some hope of a comeback alive.Spencer Torkleson hit a home run in the top of the ninth to bring the Tigers within two, and Kerry Carpenter singled to left and extended his hitting streak to 13 straight games, but it wasn’t enough as Zach McKinstry struck out to closer Jhoan Duran to seal the game for the Twins. Torkleson went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and Carpenter finished 1-for-3.
Kameron Goodwill is a freelance writer.
Tigers at Twins
When: 1:10 today, Target Field, Minneapolis, Minn.
TV/radio: BSD/97.1
Starting pitchers
Reese Olson, Tigers: Olson beat the Twins in his last outing on Aug. 10 with eight strikeouts, three walks, allowing two hits in six innings at Comerica Park. He has a 2-5 record with a a 4.45 ERA.
Kenta Maeda, Twins: Maeda took the loss in last week’s game against the Tigers. He struck out four with one walk and allowing three hits in six innings. His record is 3-7 with a 3.97 ERA.