Tigers 5, Twins 4: Detroit pounces on Milone early

After the top of the first, the Twins outscored the Tigers 4-1. That 4-0 hole was a bit much for a team that has, for the most part, struggled to stack up big run totals so far this spring.

All of Detroit's runs in that first came off of the home run. Jose Iglesias tallied his first homer of the season as the second hitter of the game, and four batters later Yoenis Cespedes smashed a three-run bomb to notch his fourth jack of the season. Milone allowed the fifth and final run in the top of the second, having put the first two runners of the inning on. That put the Twins down 5-1, and - as you obviously know - they wouldn't come all the way back.

Brian Dozier's leadoff double in the bottom of the first paid off with a Trevor Plouffe single. Minnesota would scrape across single runs in the fifth, seventh, and eighth, but they couldn't get that last run back. Not capitalizing with two on and one out in the second was costly.

David Price wasn't completely on his game, but he held the Twins to three runs off of six hits and a pair of walks in six and a third innings. But he did manage seven strikeouts, including Torii Hunter twice.

In spite of allowing two hits and a trio of walks in two innings, Tim Stauffer managed to tiptoe out of danger and put in two scoreless innings, thanks to a nice double play. Blaine Boyer did nice work in his three innings however, thanks in no small part to catching Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez stealing and a fantastic throw from Shane Robinson. In total the Minnesota bullpen did throw five scoreless innings. One strikeout is concerning, but that's par for the course with the relief corps so far in 2015. If you're not keeping a close eye on some of those minor league relievers, I'd suggest that you should be. Right now this bullpen is barely getting by.

Notes

• Detroit really thought they had Boyer figured out. Those two caught-stealing plays? Neither came from Kurt Suzuki. Boyer, in both situations, just turned around and threw the guy out.
• The Twins didn't often hit the ball exceptionally well. Plouffe's RBI single was a dribbler up the middle. Danny Santana's single was a grounder off of Iglesias' glove.
• How about Robinson's throw from left field? That's about as good as he can throw it, but it was in the air the entire way and was right at shoulder height for Suzuki to snag and put down a good tag.

ROLL CALL!

COMMENT OF THE GAMETHREAD

Brananorama: "I don't exactly understand how, out of the best 750 baseball players in the world, the Twins are this bad"