The Tigers have scored the second-fewest runs in the American League this year, but they didn’t have much trouble racking up hits against Twins pitching Wednesday.
Twins pitchers Bailey Ober and Jordan Balazovic combined to give up 17 hits and their offense couldn’t match that type of production in a 9-5 loss at Comerica Park. It was the second-most hits Twins pitchers allowed in a game this season.
Trailing by five runs in the ninth inning, the Twins sent the game-tying run to the plate after Max Kepler hit a bases-loaded RBI single, but it’s rare to win games when the opponent records 10 more hits.
Ober was responsible for 11 hits, matching a season high, and five runs (four earned) in five innings. It was just the second time in Ober’s last 13 starts he yielded more than three earned runs.
With a fastball that drew whiff after whiff at the top of the strike zone, Ober struck out a season-best nine batters. The key to his outing, really, was whether a Tigers batter could put the ball in fair territory. Ober recorded nine of his 15 outs via strikeout, and the Tigers turned 65% of the balls they put into play against him into hits.
Pitching with a one-run lead in the second inning, Ober gave up back-to-back hits to Zach McKinstry and Eric Haase. Riley Greene hit a game-tying, jamshot RBI single into shallow center field and Matt Vierling followed with an RBI single through the right side of the infield.
Three of the four hits in the second inning came in two-strike counts, and the Twins trailed for the remainder of the night.
Ober labored across his five innings. He required 68 pitches to make it through the third inning. He even had to pitch around a three-minute delay in the third inning after a fan ran onto the field and evaded security until he stopped running. The unruly fan was eventually tackled in right field.
Spencer Torkelson led off the fifth inning with a solo homer, connecting on Ober’s changeup that hung over the middle of the plate. The 380-foot homer to right field was Torkelson’s first opposite-field homer since April 23, 2022.
Torkelson, the No. 1 overall pick in 2020 MLB draft, added a leadoff home run to left field in the seventh inning off Balazovic for his third multi-homer game of the season.
The Twins succeeded in knocking Tigers righthander Alex Faedo out of the game after 4 2/3 innings, but they drove up his pitch count with only three runs. Carlos Correa lifted an elevated fastball over the center field wall, almost the deepest part of the ballpark, for a solo homer in the second inning.
Three batters after Correa’s second homer in the past three games, Ryan Jeffers ended an eight-pitch at-bat with a double to left field and extended his hitting streak to 14 games. Joey Gallo rewarded Jeffers’ at-bat with a missile over the right field fence for a two-run homer. Gallo turned on an inside fastball, the ball jumping off his bat at 110 miles per hour, for his first home run since July 17.
The Twins, who totaled six hits, left two runners in scoring position in a one-run game in the sixth inning. After Matt Wallner scored from first base on Willi Castro’s double in the left field gap, and a two-out walk, Kyle Farmer struck out against reliever Tyler Holton in a six-pitch at-bat.
An error from Kepler allowed an extra run to score in the first inning. With runners on first and second, and two outs, Kerry Carpenter lined a single into right field and the ball rolled under Kepler’s glove. Instead of a potential close play at the plate, both runners scored easily on Kepler’s first error of the season.
The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.