Detroit Tigers Suffer Crushing 8-6 Loss to Minnesota Twins

Jul 9, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki (8) tags out Detroit Tigers first baseman Marc Krauss (57) at home in the eighth inning at Target Field. The Tigers won 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Tigers imploded against the Minnesota Twins to lose 8-6 in the worst loss of the Tigers’ season. Ervin Santana and Justin Verlander both were looking for their first victory of the season, and Verlander won the duel, but did not get the win. Santana was knocked around for 6 runs in 4 innings of work with all of the runs coming home on three home runs, but the Tigers’ bullpen collapsed in the 9^th to give the Twins the 8-6 win.

Justin Verlander had his best start of the year, but was not rewarded with a win. The Twins did not hit many balls hard, especially in the air. Verlander went 7.2 innings of only surrendering 1 run on 5 hits and 1 walk with 6 strikeouts. Even though the numbers were encouraging and the stuff was there, Verlander left a lot of pitches over the plate, especially in the 8^th inning. He was better, but if he was facing a better offensive squad, he could have been hit pretty hard.

The Tigers started the scoring in the top of the third. Yoenis Cespedes led off the inning with a line drive single into center field. Victor Martinez then hit a two run home run to right field to put the Tigers up 2-0.

The Tigers then extended their lead in the top of the 4^th. Anthony Gose led off the inning with a single and stole second base. Ian Kinsler then walked in front of a Cespedes three run home run to extend the lead to 5-0. J.D. Martinez then cleared the right-center field scoreboard on a 2 strike breaking ball to put the Tigers up 6-0.

The Twins got on the board in the 8^th inning. Verlander started the inning at 95 pitches and did not seem like the same pitcher he was for the first 7 innings. He surrendered an infield single to Rosario, a hard single to Kurt Suzuki, and a blooper to Brian Dozier to cut the lead 6-1 where it stayed. There was not a lot of hard contact, but the stuff was not as good and he was not locating his pitches.

In the bottom of the 9^th, Joe Mauer hit a leadoff single, Sano hit a ground rule double, and Rosario hit a single off of Bruce Rondon to close the gap to 6-2. Joakim Soria then came on and surrendered a walk to load the bases, Kurt Suzuki did everything he could to get hit by a curveball to bring home a run to cut the Tigers’ lead to 6-3.

Danny Santana then singled to center field with the bases loaded to bring home two runs and close the gap to 6-5 to put the winning run on first base. The winning runs came home as Brian Dozier hit a three run walk off home run to left field in an unbelievably terrible loss for the Tigers.

These two teams will meet again Saturday at 4:00. Alfredo Simon (8-5, 4.18 ERA) will look to bounce back from a rough patch of starts as he takes the mound for the Tigers. Simon will be opposed by Phil Hughes (7-6, 4.19 ERA).