The Minnesota Twins sent RHP Kenta Maeda back to the mound and back to face Detroit for the 2nd consecutive start. He got his first loos of the season, losing 3-2 last week when he went 6 innings and allowed 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8. He’ll try to improve on that today and he’ll hope his offense will put up more than 2 runs, too.
#MNTwins Roster Moves: Twins recalled C/UTIL Willians Astudillo & LaMonte Wade Jr., placed Alex Avila on the 10-day Injured List (IL), optioned RHP Sean Poppen, and lost INF Ildemaro Vargas to the Cubs on a waiver claim.
Also, the Twins added RHP Jordan Balazovic, the Twins top pitching prospect, RHP Matt Canterino and LHP Charlie Barnes to their player pool. SS Jack Reinheimer and RHP Ryan Garton have been released.
It’s a pretty regular lineup other than Marwin at 2B in place of Arraez & Brent Rooker batting cleanup again!
Twins Lineup:
SS Jorge Polanco
3B Josh Donaldson
DH Nelson Cruz
RF Brent Rooker
1B Miguel Sano
LF Eddie Rosario
CF Byron Buxton
2B Marwin Gonzalez
C Ryan Jeffers
Tigers lineup:
CF Victor Reyes
2B Jonathan Schoop
DH Miguel Cabrera
1B Jeimer Candelario
SS Willi Castro
RF Jorge Bonifacio
LF Christin Stewart
C Austin Romine
3B Isaac Paredes
The first batter of the game, Detroit Tigers CF Victor Reyes, took Twins RHP Kenta Maeda out to right field for a 1-0 Tigers lead. Maeda then set down 18 straight, 8 of them via strikeout. Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal also pitched well as he set down the first 10 batters then allowed a walk in the 4th but got a double play to take care of that and he still hadn’t allowed a hit through 4 but that changed when Brent Rooker led off the bottom of the 5th with a single to right to break up the no-hitter.
Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli decided to pinch-run Jake Cave for Rooker. Miguel Sano then 1B’d to right field and Cave advanced to 3rd base. Eddie Rosario then grounded back to the pitcher for a 1-6-3 double play but it allowed Cave to score from 3rd to tie the game at 1. Buxton then struck out for the 2nd time to end the 5th. 1-1 Tie
In the top of the 7th, Jonathan Schoop walked to lead off the inning then Cabrera singled & Schoop advanced to 3rd on a close play at 3rd. Rosie’s throw was a little off, behind 3rd or he very well may have gunned Schoop down, there. Rocco went to his bullpen and brought in RHP Tyler Clippard and Candelario singled to right field on the first pitch to put the Tigers back in front at 2-1. Willi Castro then singled to left field to load the bases and Bonifacio singled to double the Tigers lead to 3-1. There were still no outs but Clippard got Stewart to ground into a force out (out at home) for the 1st out. Romine then struck out swinging and Paredes lined out to center to end the top of the 7th. 3-1 Tigers
RHP Joe Jimenez replaced Tigers starter Tarik Skubal to pitch the 7th and he got Nelson Cruz & Jake Cave to strikeout to bring up Miguel Sano and Miguel keeps hitting the facing of the upper deck with his Home Runs. This one hit the left field facing hard for his 9th HR of the season to get the Twins back to within 1. He watched this HR for a while.
The Tigers made a pitching change to LHP Gregory Soto to face Rosie & he struck him out swinging to end the 7th. 3-2 Tigers
RHP Jorge Alcala was brought in to pitch the 8th for the Twins & he allowed a leadoff single to Victor Reyes but got Schoop to flyout to right field then ended the inning with a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play. He also pitched the 9th and struck out the leadoff hitter before allowing a hit but got a grounder for a forceout to short then struck out Derek Hill for another nice outing. This 25-year-old reliever is going to be a nice piece for the Twins bullpen for a long time. He can hit triple digits with his fastball and has a nice changeup and a nice slider to mix it up, too.
This set up a bottom of the 9th with the Twins needing a run to tie it up since they did nothing with LaMonte Wade’s 2-out single in the bottom of the 8th. They had Josh Donaldson, Nelson Cruz & Jake Cave due up to get it done against Tigers RHP Jose Cisnero. Donaldson walked on 5 pitches and was lifted for pinch-runner Ehire Adrianza then Nelson Cruz singled off the pitcher to put runners on 1st & 2nd with nobody out. Jake Cave attempted to bunt a few times but ended up striking out swinging for the 1st out. That brought up Miguel Sano and he hit a game-tying RBI-single to left field. Eddie Rosario then grounded into a force out to 1st on the first pitch. Out at 2nd. The throw to was high and they may have been able to get a double play if it wasn’t but it’s hard to say. That was my initial thought after the throw was high. That sent Byron Buxton to the plate and he took the 1st 2 pitches but check-swing fouled off the 3rd and swung over the 4th pitch for a 2-2 count. He’s thinking contact to give him & his team a chance here so on the 5th pitch, a low & outside slider, he makes contact to put it into play and it’s a slow grounder to short and….this is Byron Buxton so any Twins fan who knows Buxton knew he had a chance to beat out the throw to first to win the game and That Is Exactly What He Did for a Walk Off Infield Hit, Safe At First…TWINS WIN, 4-3 for their consecutive comeback win and now 5 in a row.
#MNTwins 4, #DetroitRoots 3 | F
W-Alcala (2-1) L-Cisnero (1-2)
HR:
MN: Sano (9); DET: Reyes (4)
Stats HERE
After the game, Sano told everyone why he watched his HR for a little longer than normal:
Miguel Sanó said that he celebrated his homer tonight because last season Joe Jiménez struck him out with a slider and told him to “get the f*** out of here.” Sanó plans to celebrate any future big moments against Jiménez, too. #MNTwins— danhayesmlb (@DanHayesMLB) September 6, 2020
Same Teams tomorrow at 1:10pm on Fox Sports North:
Twins LHP Rich Hill (1-1, 3.94 ERA, 1.44 WHIP)
Vs
Tigers RHP Casey Mize (0-1, 6.75 ERA, 1.69 WHIP)
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