The Twins opened Tuesday night putting Byron Buxton in a robe to celebrate a leadoff home run. The Tigers ended the night trying on a cape that didn’t fit them. Max Kepler hit a game-tying homer in the eighth inning and a game-winning single in the 10th, sending Detroit to
The Twins opened Tuesday night putting Byron Buxton in a robe to celebrate a leadoff home run. The Tigers ended the night trying on a cape that didn’t fit them. Max Kepler hit a game-tying homer in the eighth inning and a game-winning single in the 10th, sending Detroit to a 5-4 loss at Target Field.
The Twins’ victory moved them to within a half-game of the White Sox for the American League Central lead. The Tigers seemed poised to rescue Chicago from damage following its walk-off loss to Cleveland earlier in the evening but couldn’t hold on. Detroit’s loss clinched a losing record for the fourth consecutive season.
Tarik Skubal recovered from Buxton’s second career leadoff homer and Josh Donaldson’s ensuing walk to retire 10 of his next 11 batters, striking out five of them. Mitch Garver’s solo homer moved Minnesota back in front and set up Skubal for a wild fourth inning that ended his night with a two-out walk and a hit-by-pitch to the eighth and ninth batters in the order.
Jose Cisnero struck out Buxton to strand the bases loaded, starting a procession of Tigers relievers. Daniel Norris entered to end a fifth-inning threat, then retired the Twins in order in the sixth. Joe Jiménez won his much-anticipated rematch against Miguel Sanó, who admired his home run off him a few weeks ago but flew out to the left-field warning track Tuesday as Jiménez smiled and pinched his fingers together to note how narrowly he missed it.
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Kepler did not miss, though, sending a game-tying homer to right off Buck Farmer in the eighth. A leadoff walk in the ninth brought up the top of the Twins’ lineup with a chance to win it off Gregory Soto, but Isaac Paredes’ diving stop of Buxton’s 111.9 mph ground ball and throw to second from his knees essentially saved Soto from a potential game-ending scenario.
Jeimer Candelario’s 10th-inning grounder through the left side snapped an 0-for-16 slump and put Detroit back in front off Twins closer Taylor Rogers. Rookie closer Bryan Garcia followed Eddie Rosario’s game-tying leadoff single in the bottom half with back-to-back strikeouts of Sano and Garver, but Rosario’s steal of second base set up Kepler, who blooped a single into short left field to score Rosario without a play at the plate.
Jason Beck has covered the Tigers for MLB.com since 2002. Read Beck’s Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason.