Tigers 5, Twins 3: Bullpen falters late, offense can’t get anything going

The Twins got on the board first with Mark Contreras’s first homer, a solo shot to right field in the the 3rd inning. Later in that same inning Nick Gordon had the bases loaded with 1 out and nearly hit a grand slam, but it was ruled a foul ball, just wide of the pole. Instead, we had to settle for a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 game.

Fast forward to the 5th inning, Chris Archer was throwing a shutout to this point, but walked Willi Castro with 1 out. Jonathan Schoop followed that with a double to score Detroit’s first run. Jovani Moran replaced Archer, allowing a 2-out double from Riley Greene, tying the game at 2 a piece.

In the bottom of the 5th, Carlos Correa led off with a walk, then Jorge Polanco singled. Miranda grounded out, but reached first to set up 1st and 3rd, 1 out for Nick Gordon. He hit a fly ball to right, scoring Correa from 3rd, but Miranda was thrown out trying to get to 2nd base. That ended the inning but giving the Twins a 3-2 lead.

To everyone’s surprise, Emilio Pagan worked a 1-2-3 sixth, striking out 2 along the way.

Griffin Jax started the 7th, and allowed a lead off single to Eric Haase. 1 out later, Schoop walked. Akil Baddoo and Riley Greene both hit RBI singles, giving the Tigers the lead and knocking Jax out of the game. Trevor Magill entered and immediately gave up another single to Javier Baez, giving Detroit a 5-3 lead.

Neither team scored from that point onward, so the Twins lost, because 3 is less than 5. I hope that was insightful analysis. The Twins bats only got 7 hits tonight, including just 1 in the last 3 innings. A would-be rally in the 6th was ended by a double play, just like the 5th inning. Jake Cave (that’s right, he’s back) hit a lead off double in the 4th, but was stranded at 3rd. That’s a lot of missed run scoring opportunities, and it probably cost them the game.

Studs:

Jake Cave: 2-3, BB

Mark Contreras: 1-3, first career homer

Nick Gordon: 1-1, BB, 2 RBI

Emilio Pagan, Tyler Duffey: Both worked scoreless innings

Duds:

Griffin Jax: 0.1 IP, 3 R, 3 H, BB, SO

Gio Urshela: 0-4, 4 LOBsters

Jose Miranda: 0-4, 5 LOBsters

Thanks for joining the thread, everyone!