Kenta Maeda put his hands on his knees, stared toward center field, and dropped his head once Riley Greene’s homer landed in the seats.
One two-strike, two-out pitch was the difference between a scoreless outing and a frustrating Thursday afternoon. Maeda permitted only three hits in six innings, but the last one was the one that counted in a 3-0 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park.
The Twins, who produced only two hits, dropped three of their four games in Detroit and will lose the season series to their division rival for the first time since 2016.
Maeda, who has posted a 2.36 ERA in nine starts since he was activated from the injured list at the end of June, spun three consecutive sliders to Greene during their sixth-inning at-bat. Greene, the Tigers’ designated hitter, golfed the third one from the bottom of the strike zone and rocketed it 453 feet to center field.
The Tigers scored two runs against Twins reliever Dylan Floro in the seventh inning, stringing together four straight hits, which included a bases-loaded double from Zach McKinstry. Javier Báez helped extend the rally with a bunt single.
Maeda, prior to Greene’s homer, was excellent. He erased a single in the first inning with a double play, and he stranded two runners — a two-out single and a walk — in the fourth inning. Maeda maintains his arm feels better than it did before he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021, and the results back that up. His velocity has been up and he’s regularly touching 93 miles per hour with his fastball.
The Twins didn’t provide Maeda with any run support against Tigers righthander Reese Olson, a pitcher they faced for the second time this year.
Olson surrendered two singles in six innings, totaling eight strikeouts and three walks. The Twins had runners on the corners with one out in consecutive innings, but both times Olson used a key strikeout to pitch out of it.
After Jorge Polanco led off the fourth inning with a single and Carlos Correa followed with a walk, Olson didn’t allow another ball out of the infield with a fielder’s choice ground ball, a strikeout against Ryan Jeffers on three pitches, and a foul out to the catcher.
In the fifth inning, Joey Gallo drew a one-out walk and advanced to third base through a hit-and-run single from Christian Vázquez. Olson struck out Edouard Julien with a curveball for a called third strike, one of Twins’ four strikeouts looking, and Polanco grounded out to first base.
Max Kepler hit three balls that were caught on the warning track in Comerica Park’s vast outfield, but the Twins didn’t have another baserunner as their fifth-inning opportunity fizzled.
Olson, a 24-year-old rookie who owns a 4.45 ERA in 13 appearances, has yielded one run in 111⁄3 innings against Twins hitters this season with 17 strikeouts.
It was the second time the Twins were shutout during the four-game series and the ninth time this year. After their season-best five-game winning streak, the Twins have lost three straight games.
The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.