Spencer Torkelson hit two home runs, Riley Greene hit a home run with four RBIs and the Detroit Tigers rallied from an early four-run deficit to defeat the Minnesota Twins 8-7 on Wednesday afternoon at Minneapolis.
It was the fourth multi-homer game of Torkelson’s career. Greene had three hits, Kerry Carpenter added a home runs, Akil Baddoo reached base four times and scored three runs and Matt Vierling added two hits for the Tigers who won eight times in the 13-game season series vs. the Twins.
Tyler Holton (2-2) picked up the win with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Holton didn’t allow a hit and struck out five.
Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler hit home runs, Edouard Julien had four hits and two RBIs and Royce Lewis also had three hits for Minnesota, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. Right-hander Griffin Jax (5-7) allowed four runs on three hits in an inning of relief.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Lewis, driving in Max Kepler who had walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Tigers starter Reese Olson.
The Twins extended the lead to 4-0 in the second with four consecutive singles, the final a two-run hit by Julien. Polanco followed with a sacrifice fly.
Detroit cut the lead to 4-3 in the third on a two-run homer by Greene, a 448-foot drive to right-center, and solo shot by Torkelson, a 432-foot drive off the facing of the third deck in left.
The Tigers took a 7-4 lead in the seventh. Greene tied it with an RBI triple to right-center. Vierling put Detroit ahead 5-4 with a ground out to drive in Greene. Torkelson and Carpenter followed with back-to-back solo home runs off Jax who had allowed just two home runs in 48 2/3 innings entering the game.
Greene added a sacrifice fly in the ninth to drive in Baddoo with a key insurance run to make it 8-4 in the top of the ninth. Torkelson’s attempt for a three-homer game ended in the final inning with a long fly out to the wall in left.
Minnesota made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth when Julien led off with a single and scored on a two-run homer by Polanco. Kepler followed with his 20th homer of the season to make it 8-7 before Lewis then put the tying run on base with a single.
The Twins’ Matt Wallner just missed a game-winning homer with a fly out to the wall in left and Foley got Donovan Solano to ground into a double play to end the game.
–Field Level Media