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Twins 4, Tigers 2: Berrios impresses again

An eighth-inning rally is the difference in the series opener.

By Brandon Brooks
MLB: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins
None of these people are Jose Berrios, but it was a good picture.
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The Tigers struck early tonight.

Or rather, Nicholas Castellanos struck early tonight.

Or rather, rather, Nicholas Castellanos struck tonight, because his contributions were all that Detroit would see offensively. He opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning, then singled in Jose Iglesias in the third to make it 2-0.

The Twins tied the score when Max Kepler plated two with a fifth-inning double. They nearly took the lead — Eduardo Escobar hit a two-out single into left field, and Kepler was called safe on a play at the plate, but Gardy challenged the call, which was ultimately overturned after a lengthy review.

The main story, outside of the aforementioned four runs, was Jose Berrios. Except in the third and the eighth, Berrios struck out at least one hitter in every inning, steamrolling over the Tigers lineup, holding them to two runs on three hits and fanning nine Detroit batsmen. Berrios lowered his season ERA to 3.82 and exited after eight very encouraging innings.

In the bottom of the eighth, Minnesota managed to snap the tie. With one out, Double-E drew a Single-Walk, and Eddie Rosario doubled him over to third. Detroit pitcher Daniel Stumpf intentionally walked Mitch Garver, then decided he enjoyed issuing free passes, and unintentionally walked Logan Morrison on four straight pitches to make it 3-2 Twins.

After Warwick “Cut From the Harry Potter Books” Saupold replaced Stumpf on the mound, Robbie Grossman drove in Rosario with a sacrifice fly, pushing the lead to two. Fernando Rodney turned in a clean inning’s worth of three flyouts -- the last of which saw Rosario leaping against the left-field wall to make a dazzling, game-ending catch.

Matthew Boyd and Lance Lynn will be back at it for the Tigers and Twins tomorrow.

And, in related news, Phil Hughes has been officially DFA’d by the team.

See you later, Phil. Enjoy your remaining ribs.

STUDS:

SP Jose Berrios (8 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K)

RF Max Kepler (1-for-4, 2 RBI)

3B Eduardo Escobar (2-for-3, R, BB)

DUDS:

NO DUDS! TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN!

ROBOT ROLL CALL:

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