Byron Buxton hit his team-high 20th home run, a three-run shot, and the visiting Minnesota Twins held off the Detroit Tigers 6-4 on Wednesday.
Royce Lewis added a solo homer and Austin Martin scored twice for Minnesota. Every player in the Twins’ lineup got at least one hit.
Twins reliever Taylor Rogers (2-3) tossed a scoreless inning, and Yoendrys Gomez escaped a ninth-inning jam to collect his fifth save.
Gleyber Torres had three hits and an RBI for Detroit. Kerry Carpenter supplied a two-run single while Kevin McGonigle walked three times and scored twice.
Detroit starter Framber Valdez (3-5) gave up four runs and six hits in five innings. He struck out two and walked two.
The game was delayed for 1 hour, 7 minutes by rain during the first inning.
Lewis got the Twins on the board in the second inning when he blasted a Valdez sinker over the left-center-field wall. After Valdez pitched out of a jam in the third, his teammates tied it in the bottom of the inning. McGonigle drew a two-out walk, and Torres knocked him in with a double to right-center field.
Valdez put himself in danger in the fifth by hitting Alex Jackson and Martin with pitches. Buxton then unloaded on a changeup, driving it over the left-center-field wall to make it 4-1.
The Tigers rallied in the bottom of the frame. Zach McKinstry reached on an infield single, and McGonigle walked with one out. A Torres single loaded the bases before Carpenter smacked a two-run hit to right. Andrew Morris prevented further damage by striking out Dillon Dingler and Riley Greene.
Minnesota got some breathing room in the seventh. Martin led off with a walk and Buxton singled. After a fielder’s choice and a strikeout, Drew Sommers entered the game for Detroit and gave up Josh Bell’s run-scoring single. A wild pitch brought in another run to give the Twins a 6-3 lead.
The Tigers left two runners on base in the bottom of the inning. They pushed across a run in the ninth on Dingler’s two-out single, but Gomez struck out Greene to end the game.
–Field Level Media
