Minnesota Twins Game Grades: Offensive explosion not enough in loss to Tigers
Comeback falls short as Minnesota Twins drop opener with Tigers
Down 8-0 after the first inning, Jose Berrios gone after 2/3 of an inning and a 26-year-old rookie making just his second career relief appearance earlier than anyone could have imagined.
This was definitely not a situation the Minnesota Twins would have preferred to be in. Nor was it a situation that would have been screaming epic comeback but actually that’s exactly what happened.
Unfortunately for the Twins (10-27), coming back from eight runs down to tie things up was as close as they would get as they fell to the Detroit Tigers, 10-8.
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Following an eight-run outburst that saw the Tigers (17-21) bat around including a homer and double by Ian Kinsler, the Twins got on the board with Kurt Suzuki’s first home run of the season, a two-run blast to left.
Miguel Sano’s home run in the third cut the lead to 8-3 and set things up for a four-run fourth.
The Twins got the best of staff ace Jordan Zimmerman and scored four times to cut it to an 8-7 lead before tying it in the seventh when Plouffe reached on an error by JD Martinez that allowed Byung-ho Park to score.
Reliever Pat Dean worked 5 1/3 innings in a tough spot and kept the Twins in it before succumbing to the Tigers offense and allowing the go-ahead run in the form of a Nick Castellanos home run in the seventh.
Martinez added extra insurance with a solo shot in the eighth and that would be all the scoring need for the night.
8. 2. Final. 10. 63
. Kurt Suzuki. OFFENSE . A. Team Totals: 11 hits, 0 walks, 12 strikeouts, 2 home runs. An overall valiant effort by the offense in a game where eight runs were unfortunately not enough. Suzuki got the scoring started with a two-run home run in the second inning and went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a pair of RBI’s. A strong performance by the offense as a whole as you can’t expect to lose too many games when putting up eight runs.
Team totals: 2/3 inning, 3 hits, 4 walks, 7 earned runs, 1 strikeout. If there were a grade lower than an F, Berrios would no doubt get it as this was just downright awful. Berrios showed no control as he walked four in what was his worst outing of his young career. There’s nothing that great to take from this other than hopefully Berrios got this out of his system and will rebound nicely. Hopefully.. . Jose Berrios. STARTERS . F
B. Team totals: 7 hits allowed, 3 walks, 0 home runs and 6 strikeouts. It was an admirable effort in an overall bad situation. Dean came in to relieve Berrios who failed to make it out of the first inning. He allowed 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings of work and two runs but kept the Twins in it during his outing. Perhaps <a href=. . Pat Dean. RELIEVERS
A. An overall strong game defensively with no errors by the Twins. On the flip side, they were able to capitalize on three miscues by the Tigers. . . . DEFENSE
MVT: Pat Dean
The Twins will once again be in Detroit for Game Two of the series against the Tigers. Phil Hughes (1-6, 6.44) will face former Twin Mike Pelfrey (0-4, 5.80) who helped the Tigers topple the Twins on May 1st at Target Field. Hughes has struggled mightily in his last four starts going 0-4 with just nine strikeouts and 17 earned runs allowed. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM CST at Comerica Park.