Tigers 6, Twins 4: Whiffing on the comeback

For the majority of this Father’s Day afternoon, it looked like another patented lackadaisical afternoon effort for the home squad. After trading runs in the early frames, Twins starter Louie Varland melted down in the fifth, leading to a 6-1 Detroit Tigers advantage.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The score stayed that way until the bottom of the eighth inning, when for a brief moment it turned into a scene from Rocky III. When Michael A. Taylor took a breaking ball off the back of the noggin—fortunately able to walk off the field under his own power—the team went from “getting killed” to “getting mad”...

Willi Castro & Royce Lewis both produced RBI knocks—pulling the Twins to within a 6-4 deficit—and leaving the bases loaded with no outs. After a listless performance to that point, fans in the seats and on their couches finally had something to cheer about!

Alas, the Twins’ greatest bugaboo—empty, strikeout PAs—reared its ugly head again.

After Kyle Farmer flew out, both Joey Gallo & Byron Buxton got ahead in the count—and both came away without contact. Rally snuffed.

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Adding insult to injury, Ryan Jeffers & Edouard Julien were both called out on strikes to start the last frame. A Castro line out was the final nail in the coffin.

Your final: Detroit Tigers 6, Minnesota Twins 4.

After gaining momentum last weekend in Toronto and keeping it with a dramatic two-game sweep of Milwaukee, the Twins are now right about back where they started—.500 at 36-36—after dropping 3-of-4 to the lowly Tigers (at Target Field, no less).

Studs:

• All the fathers in Twins Territory, including those of the 31,221 overall that populated Target Field on this holiday—for many (Juneteenth)—weekend.
• Jordan Balazovic (3.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER) in his major league debut.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Duds:

• Yet again, the entire offensive approach—most notably the 14 strikeouts. Only a bout of wildness from Detroit reliever Alex Lange gave the batsmen even a fighting chance in that 8th inning. Otherwise, it was a near-continuous string of quick “good morning, good afternoon, and good night” AB sequences.

Comment of the Game:

Blake Donlon pretty much sums it up here.