Minnesota Twins Lose Power Fight To The Tigers

Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Joe Mauer finally returned to the lineup for the Twins on Saturday afternoon. Mauer did not get any action in the field, but was the designated hitter for the ballgame and hit out of the three spot in the lineup. Mauer got a hit and drew a walk after missing five straight games for the Twins.

Kyle Gibson got the matchup against Max Scherzer and Gibson did not fare well in the battle. Gibson only went two innings into the ballgame before being pulled. The second inning was the big inning for the Tigers, scoring six of their runs in the inning.

The Tigers dinked and dunked their way to the first three runs in the second and then Miguel Cabrera did what Miguel Cabrera does by hitting a three-run homerun to top off the inning for Detroit.

The next half inning, Brian Dozier made it a ballgame once again. Scherzer served up a three-run homerun of his own to cut the lead in half. The Twins couldn’t get any more offense going for the rest of the game, but the Tigers could. In the seventh inning, Victor Martinez hit a three-run shot of his own to give the Tigers the deciding 9-3 lead.

Anthony Swarzak should not be overlooked in this otherwise pretty sad game for the Minnesota Twins. Swarzak came in to the game for Gibson and pitched four wonderful innings, only giving up one hit and recording three strikeouts in the outing.

The Twins offense didn’t really do much on Saturday afternoon. Seven hits were recorded by Minnesota, but only Eduardo Escobar and Danny Santana had multiple hits. Both men recorded doubles.

Only three Twinkies didn’t strikeout in the game. Brian Doizer and Aaron Hicks both went down on strikes twice and the very much cooled off Chris Colabello went down on strikes three times.

Michael Tonkin pitched an inning for the Twins and was responsible for the three-run jack to Martinez. Jared Burton was responsible for the other inning of work, which was uneventful.

The Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers face off again on Sunday. Winner takes the series