Written By Brandon Warne (ColdOmaha.com)
Photo Credit: Brian Curski
The Tigers hung up a couple crooked numbers on the Twins on the way to a second straight big win to open the series at Target Field. A five-run third and a three-run eighth spurred the 9-4 win for the Tigers, as starter Matt Boyd (5-2) tossed six solid innings despite allowing a pair of home runs. Boyd fanned six batters, walked just one and allowed just five hits total in the quality start.
The two home runs allowed included one from Brian Dozier — his 30th of the season — and the ninth of the year from Robbie Grossman, who has continued to swing a hot bat from the right side of the plate despite seeing diminished playing time down the stretch. Just two Twins hitters — Dozier and Trevor Plouffe — had multiple hits on a night where baserunners were a bit scarce for the club.
Tyler Duffey took the mound for the Twins with hopes of wiping away memories from a shaky start last time out against the Royals (five earned in 3.2 innings), but could do no such thing as completed just three frames. In all, the Tigers pushed across six runs to swell Duffey’s ERA up to 6.24, as Miguel Cabrera victimized him with a home run in the first before Justin Upton hit a two-run, two-out home run in the fateful third inning.
Duffey got the first two outs in the third with little harm, as a Cameron Maybin single to left was sandwiched in between an Andrew Romine strikeout and an Erick Aybar grounder. But that was followed by another extra-base hit off the bat of Cabrera (a booming double to right), then an intentional walk to Victor Martinez, a single to left by J.D. Martinez and then the three-run bomb off the bat of Upton.
With the 2-for-5 game including a home run, Upton got his season slugging percentage up to .400. And while that’s no great shakes for the premium free agent acquisition, it’s a mark he’s scarcely seen all season. Including Wednesday night, Upton has seen his slugging percentage reside over .400 after just 12 of his 119 games played all season. He’s trending in the right direction, but still has a ways to go.
Manager Paul Molitor wasted no time going back to Duffey in the fourth, as he handed the ball to lefty Ryan O’Rourke who gave the Twins 2.2 innings of shutout ball with a pair of strikeouts. Pat Light followed that up by working his second night in a row, as he got four outs on just 18 pitches (13 strikes) in his second appearance as a Twin.
Trouble came calling again in the eighth, as Ryan Pressly relieved Light with the Twins trailing 6-3. The trouble started almost immediately for Pressly, as his third pitch of the night was a single to right by J.D. Martinez, which was followed by a swinging strikeout, a single to left, another swinging strikeout (but not before a wild pitch advanced the runners), a two-run single and an error, and another single to left to cap the scoring for the Tigers with a 9-3 lead.
Just two of the three runs were earned for Pressly, but it’s worth wondering is he’s showing signs of fatigue. He’s been good of late, but he’s also up to 64.1 innings on the season. That puts him somewhere between the top five and top 10 in terms of most-used relievers in terms of innings pitched this season. It’s also worth noting that he battled back from a nasty lat injury that limited him to just 27.2 MLB innings last year — a mark he’s already doubled. In 2013, Pressly threw 76.2 innings with the Twins are a Rule-5 pick — a mark he’s sure to surpass barring a late-season shutdown.
The Twins added a run in the eighth on a Plouffe single up the middle against reliever Shane Greene, but it was too little, too late as the Tigers cruised to their second easy win in a row against the Twins.
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Notes
- The Twins have lost six games in a row — their third such streak of the year. They fell to 2-9 against the Tigers this season.
- Light worked 1.1 scoreless innings, and is up to two clean frames since the Twins recalled him.
- Dozier was the first Twin to hit 30 home runs in a season since Josh Willingham back in 2012.
- Dozier was also the first Twin to hit 11 home runs in a month since Willingham, who also did so in the month of July in 2012.
- Dozier’s 30-home run season is the 29th in MLB history by a second baseman.
- Miguel Sano’s single in the eighth snapped an 0-for-24 skid. His last hit prior to that came on the previous homestand — a second inning home run against Kansas City’s Yordano Ventura.
- J.T. Chargois worked a scoreless ninth inning for the Twins. Since allowing five earned runs in his debut to the Red Sox, Chargois has allowed just one earned run in the meantime — spanning 7.2 innings (1.17 ERA). Chargois did however fail to strike out a batter for the fifth appearance in a row.
- Duffey threw first pitch strikes to just 8-of-16 batters faced, marking the second night in a row that a starter struggled to work ahead for the Twins.
- Twins pitchers threw 151 pitches (100 strikes), but combined for just 12 swinging strikes — a meager 7.9 percent. Boyd on his own had 13 swinging strikes in his 97 pitches.