Kerry Carpenter belted a solo homer and Trey Sweeney scored three times on Saturday night to lead Detroit to an 8-5 victory over the host Minnesota Twins and extend the Tigers’ winning streak to four games.
Starter Casey Mize (12-4) allowed four runs on four hits and tied a career high with 10 strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings. Mize became the first pitcher to win three starts against the Twins in a single season since Chicago White Sox’s Lucas Giolito in 2021, and he’s the first Tigers starter to do so since Matthew Boyd in 2016.
Kyle Finnegan pitched the ninth inning and picked up his 24th save on the season.
Detroit, which left 14 runners on base and was four of 21 with runners in scoring position, has won six of its last seven games.
Spencer Torkelson gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead when his line drive to center scored Colt Keith from second base.
Carpenter belted his 22nd home run 387-feet to center to up the margin to 2-0 in the second inning.
The Twins snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak in the fifth when Brooks Lee tripled off the right field wall to bring home Luke Keaschall and Ryan Jeffers. Royce Lewis followed with a sacrifice fly to left to score Lee and give Minnesota a 3-2 lead.
The Tigers loaded the bases in the sixth inning and tied it at 3-3 when Sweeney scored on Riley Greene’s sacrifice fly to left.
Detroit took a 4-3 lead in the seventh as Sweeney’s grounder allowed Wenceel Perez to come home from third. The Tigers added two more runs when Dillon Dingler scored on a double by Jahmai Jones, and Kody Funderburk’s wild pitch allowed Sweeney to score.
Keaschall pulled the Twins within 6-4 in the seventh when he scored off Lee’s groundout. Minnesota cut it to 6-5 with two outs as Matt Wallner came home when reliever Tyler Holton dropped a throw from first baseman Torkelson, who fielded a grounder by James Outman.
The Twins loaded the bases in the eighth with two outs, but Will Vest struck out Lee for the final out.
Detroit added two runs in the ninth when Zach McKinstry scored off a throwing error by reliever Justin Topa, and Sweeney came home on Jones’ single to center.
Minnesota starter Zebby Matthews struck out six and walked a career-high four while allowing two runs on five hits over four innings. The Twins used six pitchers with reliever Brooks Kriske (0-1) suffering the loss.
–Field Level Media
