Twins gain ground with doubleheader sweep of Tigers
The Minnesota Twins gained ground in the American League Central race as they swept a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers on Friday afternoon to extend their winning streak to four games.
The first game was vintage Bomba Squad as the Twins launched a pair of first-inning home runs. After Jorge Polanco smashed his fourth home run of the year, Josh Donaldson followed up with a 441-foot blast over the batter's eye at Target Field.
The early offense was all the Twins needed at the plate as Randy Dobnak got revenge after taking a loss to the Tigers last weekend. The right-hander went five shutout innings to lead the way to the bullpen, where Tyler Duffey and Taylor Rogers closed it out to preserve the 2-0 victory.
The Twins kept their momentum going during the early stages of the second game, which saw the Twins play as the visiting team as part of a makeup from August 28. Brent Rooker put the Twins on the board early as he collected his first major league hit and RBI with a single in the third inning.
While Rooker put the Twins ahead in the top half of the third, the rookie, who was called up when Max Kepler was put on the injured list earlier in the day, came up short on a diving attempt on a ball off the bat of Jonathan Schoop which led to an RBI triple to tie the game. Miguel Cabrera followed up with an RBI single to put the Tigers ahead 2-1.
The deficit lasted until the seventh inning when the Twins mounted a rally against Tigers closer Gregory Soto. Jorge Polanco cashed in with his fourth hit of the game to drive in Ehire Adrianza to tie the game up at 2.
Although the Twins couldn't get the go-ahead run across, they capitalized on MLB's extra-inning rules in the eighth when Marwin Gonzalez delivered a leadoff single to drive in Willians Astudillo to give the Twins the lead. Trevor May came in to get the save and preserve the 3-2 victory.
The Twins are now 24-16 on the season and sit a half-game behind the Cleveland Indians heading into their Friday night matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers. Minnesota will send Kenta Maeda to the mound in the third game of the series with the Tigers on Saturday night against Tarik Skubal.
