Winning 5-1 in the 9th, Twins give up grand slam, lose to Tigers
The Minnesota Twins' terrible season continued against the Detroit Tigers Tuesday night as they threw away a 5-1 advantage by giving up a grand slam in the top of the 9th, and then lost in extra innings.
The Twins had been cruising to victory after Mitch Garver took advantage of Tyler Alexander's struggles in the first inning. After Jorge Polanco and Brent Rooker hit back-to-back singles to open the inning, Josh Donaldson walked before Garver hit his first career grand slam.
Backed with an early 4-0 lead, Kenta Maeda cruised through the Tigers lineup. The right-hander came into Tuesday starts with a 2.35 ERA in four July starts and continued to dominate, allowing one Akil Baddoo home run over 6.1 innings.
With Maeda keeping Detroit off the board, the Twins added to their lead in the fourth when Willians Astudillo hit his fifth home run of the season.
But the Twins lead evaporated with Hansel Robles on the mound in the ninth. After loading the bases, Robles served up a grand slam to Eric Haase to tie the game at 5-5 marking the sixth grand slam allowed by the Twins bullpen this season.
They then give up a run in the top of the 11th, and were unable to get on the board themselves, consigning them to another demoralizing defeat.
The Twins will go for the series victory on Wednesday afternoon when J.A. Happ takes the mound against Wily Peralta for a 12:10 p.m. first pitch.
