“They got rolling, and I couldn’t stop it”.
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Apparently Detroit Tigers skipper Brad Ausmus is not one of those managers, or Minnesota’s Brian Dozier is not one of those players.
– The Tigers stranded a pair of baserunners in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, advancing a runner past second base just once.
In his first outing since July 31st, starter Mike Pelfrey failed to get out of the second inning and fell to 4-and-10 for Detroit. C Kurt Suzuki is not likely to play for the Twins until this weekend after suffering a five-stitch cut on his chin Wednesday night. Despite his torrid numbers in the second half, Ausmus chose to pitch to him. Eduardo Escobar singled Kepler home, Rosario bunted for a hit, Juan Centeno sacrificed and Dozier stroked his two-run single to left on a 2-2 pitch.Second-place Detroit is still on the fringes of the rush for the second wild-card spot in the American League and enters a weekend series against first-place Cleveland nearly needing a three-game sweep to retain serious hopes of overtaking the Indians in the AL Central.
“With the bases loaded, you don’t have any room to maneuver”, he said. “If he grounds out to third, no one is asking me about it”.
“Our guys were going to attack Mike’s fastball”, Molitor said of Pelfrey, who spent the last three seasons with the Twins.
Ausmus had to call on lefty Blaine Hardy out of the bullpen with two outs in the second inning, after Pelfrey surrendered four runs on five hits.
The Tigers are battling for one of the two wild cards in the AL.
Instead, Justin Upton walked and scored on Andrew Romine’s RBI single before Kinsler and Maybin hit back-to-back two-out triples to tie the game.
Hardy kept the Tigers in the game with 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief and Kyle Ryan added two more, but the offence couldn’t take advantage. “Wimmer’s getting six outs there was huge for us”. “He’s had some tough luck in limited innings, but he’s a reliever with four pitches and he’s starting to trust his stuff”. Detroit (78-68) opens a crucial three-game series in Cleveland on Friday.
The Twins extended their lead to 5-1 in the ninth, on an RBI single to left by Byron Buxton.
Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano was scheduled to return to the Twin Cities on Thursday to have his ailing lower back examined by team doctors.
“Our guys scored enough runs in the top of the inning to win the game”, Duffey said.
For the fourth day in a row, the Tigers had a Rio Olympic medalist throw out the ceremonial first pitch. One homer behind Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo (42) for the majors’ lead, Dozier reached base in 12 of 19 plate appearances in the series. On Thursday, it was swimmer Connor Jaeger, who won silver in the 1,500-meter freestyle.
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Twins: Travel to NY for a three-game weekend series against the Mets. Rookie of the Year favourite Michael Fulmer (10-6, 2.76 ERA) goes up against Cy Young Award candidate Corey Kluber (16-9, 3.05) in the opener.
