Detroit Tigers Continue Their Slide, Lose to Twins, 9-4

The Minnesota Twins picked up where they left off in the ninth inning last night against Detroit Tigers pitching. They jumped on starter Alfredo Simon for seven runs in 2 and one-third innings and cruised to a 9-5 victory.

Simon (8-6) wasn’t just not missing many bats in today’s start, he seemed to be on a first-name basis with every piece of lumber the Twins brought to the plate. Two of the only seven outs Simon recorded came from runners trying to take an extra base.

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Four straight singles to open the second inning got the Twins on the board for a 2-0 lead which became 3-0 after a Danny Santana double.

The floodgates opened for the Twins in the third inning. Joe Mauer led off by reaching on an error by Ian Kinsler and scored on a double by Miguel Sano, who was thrown out attempting to advance to third on the throw towards home. Two singles and an Aaron Hicks triple later and Simon was finished for the afternoon.

In the meantime, the Tigers’ bats snoozed against Twins starter Phil Hughes (8-6) until the fourth inning. Victor Martinez led off with a home run to right and with one out James McCann singled home J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos to close the deficit to 7-3.

They shaved another run off the Twins’ lead in the fifth when Rajai Davis and Yoenis Cespedes sandwiched doubles around a Kinsler groundout.

Victor Martinez followed by being called out on strikes on a pitch well out of the zone high and outside and was ejected for pointing that out to home plate umpire Marty Foster. Brad Ausmus dashed from the dugout to keep himself between Foster and Martinez and also ended up ejected.

That spared both from witnessing the bottom of the sixth when, with one out, reliever Buck Farmer hit Brian Dozier with an 0-2 fastball. Torii Hunter blasted the next pitch into the left field third deck to give the Twins a 9-4 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth, new signee, pitcher Neftali Feliz made his Tigers debut by setting the Twins down in order, striking out Sano to finish the inning.

Minnesota closer Glen Perkins set down the Tigers side in order in the ninth inning to close the game.

The Tigers attempt to salvage the final game of the series and finish the first half of the season above .500 when they send Shane Greene (4-6) to the mound against Kyle Gibson (7-6).