Winning is fun!!!
The Tigers decided to put a little pop in their bats tonight, and oh boy it was a great time to watch the game tonight. David Festa was on the mound for the Twins and Keider Montero was up for the Tigers.
In the top of the first, Riley Greene got a two-out triple, but despite the hustle, the Tigers weren’t able to bring him home. In the home half, Carlos Correa got a two-out double, but was also left stranded.
The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the top of the second. In the bottom half Jose Miranda drew a leadoff walk, followed quickly by three outs.
Gio Urshela got a leadoff single in the third, then with two outs, Colt Keith got a single. Riley Greene followed that with a single of his own to load the bases, and then absolute hero Carson Kelly hit a grand slam.
What a way to get on the board. This was followed by a Weneel Perez home run. Justyn-Henry Malloy singled and then got his first career stolen base. The Tigers didn’t get any more runs, but five in one inning was pretty great. In the bottom of the inning Christian Vazquez kicked things off with a solo home run to keep the Twins from getting shut out. Willi Castro then singled, but three outs quickly ended the inning with minimum damage done.
The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of the inning Max Kepler was hit by a pitch, and Brooks Lee got a two-out single. No runs scored.
In the top of the fifth, Colt Keith hit a leadoff triple, and then Riley Greene knocked in a home run to put the Tigers up 7-1.
By the way, the kids who got Riley’s home run ball were featured in a quick interview with Johnny Kane and it was just about the cutest, most wholesome thing I’ve seen on TV this year. In the home half of the inning Willi Castro was hit by a pitch. A double play removed the baserunner and a groundout ended the inning.
Josh Staumont was the first reliever out of the Twins’ pen, and got the Tigers out in order. The Twins were also 1-2-3 in the bottom half.
The next Twins reliever was Caleb Thielbar, who saw the Tigers go three-up, three-down. Onto the bottom half and Montero started to show signs of struggle. Byron Buxton hit a double, then a Brooks Lee single brought him home. After one out, that was it for Montero, who went 6.1 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR on 80 pitches. A really nice outing for the young pitcher. Alex Faedo came in out of the pen and gave up a walk to Willi Castro. Carlos Correa got a two-out walk, but thankfully Faedo was able to get the final out with no damage done.
Kody Funderburk (fun name alert!) got the Tigers out in order in the top of the eighth. In the bottom half Jose Miranda singled, and then Faedo got the next two outs before being pulled in favor of Tyler Holton, who got the final out of the inning.
In the ninth, Akil Baddoo got a two-out triple (the Tigers’ third triple of the game!). Matt Vierling then hit a home run to get the score up to 9-2.
Bottom of the ninth saw Vazquez single, though it honestly should have been an out, except Ryan Kreidler literally fell over catching the ball, so that wasn’t ideal. It didn’t end up mattering as Holton closed out the game shortly thereafter.
Final: Tigers 9, Twins 2