The Minnesota Twins had their best day of the young season Saturday. They’ll look to get a series victory when they face the Detroit Tigers again Sunday afternoon.
The Twins, who were 4-7 entering the day, pulled off a doubleheader sweep. They won the opener 11-5 in 12 innings, then recorded a 4-1 victory in the nightcap. Detroit won the series opener Friday night 8-2.
“We needed these two wins today,” said reliever Cole Sands, who closed out the Game 2 victory by retiring all seven batters he faced.
“We had to do a lot of good, crisp baseball things today,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Our pitching led the way today. It couldn’t have worked out much better with what we were looking at and what we were facing. The guys all showed up.”
The Twins won’t have their starting shortstop for a while. Carlos Correa suffered a right oblique strain during the series opener on Friday. He was placed on the 10-day injured list on Saturday.
“What (stinks) the most is this is the first April in my career that I’ve felt good,” said Correa, who was hitting .306 with a homer and four RBIs at the time of the injury. “I feel like this is going to be my feel and my swing, this was going to be it for the whole year. And it happens, but at least it’s there. Hopefully, it’s nothing too long and I can get back in there soon.”
Minnesota now has two of its top run producers on the shelf. The Twins lost third baseman Royce Lewis for an extended period due to a severe quad strain he suffered on Opening Day.
Bailey Ober (0-1, 12.79 ERA) will start for Minnesota on Sunday. Ober bounced back from a disastrous season debut in which he gave up eight runs in 1 1/3 innings to Kansas City by holding the Los Angeles Dodgers to one run in five innings on Monday.
He’s 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA in seven career starts against Detroit.
Detroit starter Jack Flaherty (0-1, 5.25 ERA) held the Chicago White Sox to one run in six innings in his season debut. He got roughed up in his second start, allowing six runs in six innings to Oakland.
He’s only faced Minnesota once in his career, holding the Twins to one run in 5 2/3 innings.
Zach McKinstry made a crucial error at third base in the extra-inning loss on Saturday, allowing three runs to score. To preserve bullpen arms, manager A.J. Hinch used McKinstry as a reliever later in the inning and the position player gave up a three-run homer.
Hinch didn’t think there was a carryover effect from Game 1 to Game 2.
“That’s a bad sign, if one game carries into the other. I don’t think it did,” he said. “This team is too resilient.”
Detroit left 10 runners on base in the first game and managed just four hits and one walk in the nightcap.
“We’re more of a contact team than we’ve shown the last few games,” Hinch said. “We’ve got to get better pitches to hit and not miss them.”
–Field Level Media
