For the second straight day, the last-place Minnesota Twins were hanging in against a team vying for the American League wild card.
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Erick Aybar drove in two runs for Detroit, which went 9-0 at Minnesota this year and outscored the Twins 65-25 at Target Field.
Detroit’s Justin Upton hit a tiebreaking homer off Alex Wimmers (1-3) and Victor Martinez added a pinch-hit, three-run homer in a six-run ninth against Pat Light. Ervin Santana fell to 7-and-11 for Minnesota.
Francisco Rodriguez threw a ideal ninth inning for his 44th save.
Seattle (80-72), which also ends the season with four at home against Oakland (66-86) – with a trip to Houston in between, is two games back with three teams over which to hop in order to get the wild-card berth.
Paxton pitched five ideal innings and finished having allowed just two runs over seven frames while striking out seven last time out before suffering a 2-1 loss to Houston.
In the first of their final home series, the Twins lost 10-1 to the Seattle Mariners. They had three errors and five wild pitches in the doubleheader, scheduled to make up Wednesday’s rainout. Dozier passed Alfonso Soriano’s total in 2002. Only three National Leaguers – Rogers Hornsby (42 in 1922), Davey Johnson (42 in 1973) and Ryne Sandberg (40 in 1990) – have hit 40 or more more. The Seattle Mariners offense has been hit or miss lately, but they’ve won seven straight games when scoring more than three runs.
“It’s unfortunate for him that he hasn’t been able to celebrate a lot of those home runs with the losses”, said Twins manager Paul Molitor. May was 2-2 with a 5.27 ERA in 44 relief appearances. The Red Sox have won each of the left-hander’s last nine starts since August 7. The Twins are 2-8 in their last 10 during game 2 of a series and 0-4 in Duffeys last 4 starts.
The feat is remarkable, especially considering Dozier got off to a relatively sluggish start at the plate this season.
PLAY OF THE GAME: The Mariners had already scored four runs in the seventh inning and had runners at first and second with one out when Mike Zunino punched an RBI single to left against Buddy Boshers. It could also be the O’s best chance to pick up steam in the wild card race before series against Toronto and NY next week. Nolasco (7-14) gave up five hits – all singles – and struck out five.
It’s been a huge year for Dozier, who hit a career-high 28 home runs last season.
BRAVES 6, MARLINS 3 Matt Kemp hit two home runs to power visiting Atlanta to a victory over Miami.
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James Paxton pitched seven strong innings and finally received a boost from the offense, which broke out with a six-run seventh inning. He went to second on a walk to Smith before Cano served a soft RBI single into right field.
