Dillon Dingler finished 3-for-5 with an RBI, Zach McKinstry drove in two, and the Detroit Tigers held on for a 7-6 win over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night in Minneapolis.
Trey Sweeney and Javier Baez each doubled and drove in a run for Detroit, which won for the eighth time in its past 10 games. Colt Keith went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Byron Buxton had a home run, two RBIs, three runs and a stolen base to lead the Twins. Ty France finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Edouard Julien went 3-for-5.
Tigers right-hander Will Vest (1-0) earned the win in relief with 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Tommy Kahnle allowed a run in the ninth inning but earned his second save.
Twins right-hander Jorge Alcala (0-2) gave up four runs out of the bullpen without recording an out.
The Twins opened the scoring in the second on France’s RBI single to center.
A throwing error by Twins right fielder Matt Wallner allowed the Tigers to even the score at 1-1 in the top of the fifth. Dingler scored on the play.
Minnesota pulled ahead 4-1 with three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Carlos Correa delivered a run-scoring single to left, Buxton notched an RBI on a fielder’s choice groundout to shortstop, and Edouard Julien capped the inning with an RBI double to right.
The Twins’ lead proved to be short lived as Detroit scored four in the sixth to go ahead 5-4.
McKinstry looped a two-run single to center to cut the Tigers’ deficit to one. In the next at-bat, Dingler punched a single through the right side of the field to score Keith and make it 4-all.
Sweeney stepped to the plate with runners at first and third with one out. He grounded into a fielder’s choice at second base, but McKinstry came home to score the go-ahead run.
Keith increased the Tigers’ lead to 6-4 with an RBI single to left in the top of the seventh.
Buxton hit a towering homer to left to bring the Twins within 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh.
Detroit regained a two-run lead on Baez’s RBI double to left in the eighth.
France notched an RBI single for the Twins in the bottom of the ninth to cut the deficit to 7-6, but Mickey Gasper grounded out to first base to end the game.
–Field Level Media
