Twins robe up to take opener against Tigers
The Minnesota Twins are gearing up for the postseason. While that could mean the Twins are getting ready for what they hope is a long postseason run, it also means that they're literally getting new gear to take with them on the road to the pennant.
On Tuesday night, the Twins unveiled new robes presented by Josh Donaldson and used their newest superstition to take a 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers.
The Twins broke out the robes early as Byron Buxton put the Twins on the board with a leadoff home run. As Buxton returned to the dugout, he was greeted by Nelson Cruz, who put the robe on Buxton to begin the celebration.
While Buxton handed starter Homer Bailey a lead, the right-hander struggled after three perfect innings to begin the game and squandered the lead on a Miguel Cabrera RBI single. After loading the bases with nobody out in the fourth, Cody Stashak came in and induced a 6-2-5 double play and a lineout to center to get out of the jam.
After Garver's heads up play in the top of the inning, he'd deliver at the plate with a solo home run that gave the Twins the lead. Naturally, the robes were out once again.
While the Twins held a 2-1 lead, the Twins bullpen coughed it up in the sixth. Trevor May loaded the bases with three walks and Tyler Duffey came in with two outs to try to extinguish the rally. A dribbler off the bat of Willi Castro was eventually misplayed by Miguel Sano at first base to let two runs score and hand the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
The Tigers lead remained until the eighth inning when Max Kepler broke out the robes again by hitting his ninth home run of the season to tie the game at 3-3.
The game went to extra innings where the Tigers scored the first run on a Jeimer Candelario RBI single, but the Twins scored a pair in the bottom of the 10th with Max Kepler walking off with an RBI single to give Minnesota the win.
With the victory, the Twins climbed within a half-game of the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central. Minnesota will finish off its two-game series with the Tigers on Wednesday when Kenta Maeda takes the mound against Casey Mize.
