The Tigers continued their Midwest tour tonight, opening a four-game series against the Twins in Minneapolis. Actually, this seems like a good debate to bring to the comments: what do we consider to be “the Midwest”? Because Minnesota is actually about as North as you can get without coming to hang out with me in Canada.
However, technically speaking, both Minnesota and Illinois are “the Midwest.” What a strange and delightful thing regional nicknames are. Anyway, geography side-topic aside, the Tigers had their undisputed ace Tarik Skubal on the mound, up against Bailey Ober for the Twins, and if I were writing the Twins recap, I would absolutely be making an Ober/Under pun in the title of that recap.
The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the top of the first. In the home half, the Twins got a two-out walk from Ryan Jeffers, but no runs scored.
It was another three-up, three-down inning for the Tigers in the second. The Twins, meanwhile, got a one-out single by Trevor Larnach, but he was then eliminated by a double play off the bat of Brooks Lee.
The Tigers continued to struggle against Ober in the third. What do you suppose is the Ober/Under on them getting a baserunner before the seventh inning? Eh? Eh? No, I do not know how sports betting works, despite FanDuel’s best efforts, why do you ask? Anyway, the Tigers went 1-2-3 in the third. With one out in the home half, Edouard Julien homered to put the Twins on the board first.
Things were just starting to get bad for Skubal at that point. Austin Martin doubled, followed by a Byron Buxton single. Ryan Jeffers grounded out, but scored Martin. AL Player of the Week Luke Keaschall singled, scoring Buxton. Keaschall stole second, then Royce Lewis walked. With all that, Skubal was finally able to get the final out of the inning, but the Twins were up by three and the Tigers had yet to get a baserunner aboard.
With two outs in the fourth, Detroit finally managed to get someone on base with a Kerry Carpenter double. Riley Greene then came on to homer, bringing in two runs and tightening up the gap.
With two outs in the home half, Julien singled; however, Skubal got the third out of the inning with his first strikeout of the night.
In the fifth, the Tigers were back to their old tricks, going 1-2-3, because why win by a lot when you can make it a nail-biting game down to the wire? On the plus side, Skubal seemed much more locked in in the home half and got the side out in order.
Javier Baez got the sixth inning going with a leadoff double. Colt Keith, celebrating his birthday, hit a little bloop single into right, bringing Baez home.
With one out, Kody Funderburk replaced Ober. Funderburk got the second out of the inning, but then Riley Greene walked. A flyout ended the inning, but the game was now tied 3-3. In the home half, the Twins made no headway in breaking up the tie as they went three-up, three-down agains Skubal,
Brooks Kriske replaced Funderburk in the seventh, and he had the Tigers’ number, getting them out in order. The Twins went 1-2-3 again in the bottom of the seventh, and that was it for Skubal’s night. His final line was 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR on 99 pitches. Not his best outing, especially in the first three innings. The low strikeouts are certainly worthy of note, but Skubal really turned things around after the third inning.
Michael Tonkin was the new Twins pitcher for the eighth, and he got the Tigers out in order. Kyle Finnegan replaced Skubal, and his first out was a flyout of the bat of Buxton that was snagged high on the fence by Riley Greene, with such dedication that he ended up spending the rest of the inning with a bloody arm. Two strikeouts followed to end the inning with a tie still intact.
The Twins continued to shuffle through relievers, bringing in Cole Sands next. He allowed a two-out walk to Spencer Torkelson, but no runs scored. After one out in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers turned things over to Tyler Holton to hopefully maintain the tie for one more chance. With two outs, Brooks Lee doubled. The Twins weren’t able to bring a run in, though, and this one was headed to extra innings.
In the top of the tenth, Javier Baez legged out a two-out single, but it wasn’t enough to get the Tigers going. In the home half, the first out of the inning came on a sac bunt by Mickey Gasper that allowed the ghost runner Alan Roden to advance to third. A tag play off Austin Martin got Roden out at home plate in a nice play between Torkelson and Dingler that saved a walk-off moment. That was it for Holton. Rafael Montero came in to face Byron Buxton. Everyone could breathe a sigh of relief as Buxton hit a liner right to Baez to end the inning.
Erasmo Ramirez (Tigers class of 2021) was in for the Twins in the eleventh. A wild pitch allowed ghost runner Colt Keith to get to third, and then a Gleyber Torres sac fly scored Keith and gave the Tigers the lead for the first time in the game.
Kerry Carpenter hit a perfectly placed blooper to right field. Unfortunately, Riley Greene then hit into a double play to end the inning. But the Tigers now had the lead, so it would be up to the bullpen to keep the Twins’ bats silent. A tall order lately.
In the home half, Ryan Jeffers struck out on a foul tip, which resulted in quite the display as Rocco Baldelli argued that the pitch had hit the dirt, and lost his mind to the point of getting ejected from the game. The violent hat toss was a nice touch. Montero missed a check swing to end the inning on a strikeout, and the Tigers won the first game in the series.
Final (11): Tigers 4, Twins 3