Nacho Alvarez Jr. hit the first two homers of his career and drove in three runs as the visiting Atlanta Braves rallied past Detroit 6-5 on Saturday afternoon, sending the Tigers to their fifth straight loss and reducing their lead in the American League Central to one game over Cleveland.
The second-place Guardians swept a doubleheader over Minnesota Saturday with a pair of shutouts by a combined 14-0 margin.
Cleveland (84-71) has won 15 of its past 16 games while Detroit (85-70) has lost eight of nine.
For Atlanta (72-83) on Saturday, Jurickson Profar completed a two-run rally in the ninth with a tiebreaking RBI single as the Braves extended their winning streak to seven games. Drake Baldwin hit a two-run homer for Atlanta.
Dylan Dodd (1-0) tossed a scoreless inning in relief to earn the victory, and Raisel Iglesias collected his 27th save.
Spencer Torkelson hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs for the Tigers. Zach McKinstry added a solo shot and Jahmai Jones had three hits and two runs.
Detroit starter Keider Montero gave up three runs on two hits and four walks with two strikeouts in three innings. Atlanta starter Joey Wentz allowed two runs, six hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in five innings.
Detroit scored in the first inning on Torkelson’s RBI single.
The Braves took the lead in the third. Alvarez blasted a Montero slider over the left field wall leading off the inning. With two outs, Ronald Acuna Jr. drew a walk and scored on Baldwin’s 18th homer.
The Tigers pulled within 3-2 in the bottom of the inning on Wenceel Perez’s sacrifice fly. McKinstry, pinch hitting for Andy Ibanez, evened the score in the sixth against Hunter Stratton with his 12th homer, an opposite-field shot off a fastball.
Detroit gained a 5-3 lead in the seventh. Jones led off against Dylan Lee with a single. With two down, Torkelson smashed his 31st homer to left on a curveball from Pierce Johnson.
Alvarez notched his second homer leading off the eighth, this time off Kyle Finnegan.
Ozzie Albies and Ha-Seong Kim led off the ninth with singles off Will Vest (6-5). Following two strikeouts, Alvarez knocked in Albies with a game-tying single. Profar then drove in Kim with another single for the go-ahead run.
–Field Level Media
