Tigers 4, Twins 2: No run support

Today was a special day for Kohl Stewart, as he made his first MLB start for the Twins. As far as first starts go, it went fairly well. All of the scouting on Stewart says he’s a ground-ball pitcher, and he lived up to that reputation.

Stewart seemingly sailed through 4 innings, getting nearly all of his outs via the grounder. The Twins defense turned two double plays behind him to help him out. But, as that old saying, and not something I just made up, goes: “You live by the grounder, you die by the grounder.”

The bottom of the 5th inning started with a ground out, but three straight singles followed to score Detroit’s first run. A Jose Iglesias single and then a bases loaded walk to Niko Goodrum gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead. That ended Stewart’s day, as Taylor Rogers was brought in from the bullpen. Victor Martinez, who is just a bat, picked up a sac-fly to extend the lead to 3-1, before Jim Adduci grounded out to end the inning.

Kohl Stewart’s final line was: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 74 pitches, 45 strikes. Obviously, we’d like to see the strikeouts go up, but it was a decent first impression.

The Twins offense struggled to get much accomplished today, but did get the game’s first run in the 2nd inning. Mitch Garver hit a deep fly past center fielder JaCoby Jones for a triple, and was brought in on a sac fly by Johnny “Baseball” Field.

Max Kepler got us closer on a home run to right (15), but the Tigers got that run right back in the bottom of the 8th.

Shane Greene shut down the Twins in order in the 9th to end the game.

The Twins (54-63) lose the series to the Tigers (46-69). We now go back to Target Field to face the Pirates for a 2-game series.

Studs:

Kohl Stewart innings 1-4

Max Kepler: 1-3, HR

Duds:

The Not-Keplers: 3-27 (.111)

Kohl Stewart’s 5th inning: Not a fan.

Robot Roll Call: