The Detroit Tigers didn’t exactly bash their way to a series win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. They worked for it the patient way, stacking up walks, cashing in enough of them and riding a bullpen that kept the door shut in a 7-2 victory at Comerica Park.
A 100-minute rain delay pushed back the start, but once the game got going, Colt Keith set the tone fast. His two-run homer in the bottom of the first gave Detroit an early cushion, and the Tigers never gave it back. By the end of the night, eight walks had helped fuel the offense, with four of those free passes eventually turning into runs.
Keith’s blast came on a 3-2 changeup from Twins starter Zebby Matthews and marked his 10th homer of the season. That also gave him double-digit home runs in all three of his MLB seasons. Against Matthews, Keith has now gone 5-for-9 with two homers, two doubles and five RBIs.
Detroit kept adding in the third. John Peck and Hao-Yu Lee drew walks, Kevin McGonigle doubled to load the bases, and the Tigers kept the pressure on from there.
Riley Greene worked a one-out walk to bring Peck home, Dillon Dingler followed with a sacrifice fly to score McGonigle, and Brett Callahan sent Lee in from second on an automatic double that bounced over the wall in foul territory in left field. That sequence stretched the lead to 5-0.
Lee finished with a career-high three walks, and it was his fifth multi-walk game of the season. Detroit had six walks through the first four innings and had already matched more than its usual pace by the seventh. Max Clark also scored once as the Tigers kept turning passes into production.
Dingler added another RBI in the seventh with a two-out single, giving him two RBIs on the day. It was his first multi-RBI game since Aug. 6, a welcome bounce for a catcher who entered Wednesday hitting .173 since the start of August.
On the mound, Keider Montero gave Detroit exactly what it needed. He worked around an early hit batter, picked off Luke Keaschall, and got through the first inning cleanly.
The Twins finally broke through in the fourth with back-to-back solo homers from Kody Clemens and Josh Bell, but that was the full extent of the damage. Montero finished with two runs allowed on two hits over four innings, striking out two on 74 pitches.
A.J. Hinch had said before the game that the team would keep an eye on Montero’s workload as the season winds down, especially with the right-hander expecting the birth of a child soon. Thursday’s off day also gave Detroit some breathing room before this weekend’s home series against the Colorado Rockies.
The bullpen took it from there and blanked Minnesota over the final five innings. Tyler Holton ran his scoreless streak to eight games, matching the longest active run by any Tigers reliever. Tyler Kinley’s outing was shorter and less tidy, but Drew Sommers got a strikeout of Walker Jenkins to keep Kinley’s scoreless streak at eight games as well, tying Holton for the team lead among active relievers.
The win lifted Detroit to 67-79, snapped a seven-series losing streak and kept the Tigers seven games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the third and final American League wild-card spot, with Cleveland playing later Wednesday.
Now comes a day off on Thursday before Detroit opens a three-game weekend set against Colorado on Friday at 6:40 p.m. Framber Valdez is lined up to start for the Tigers, while the Rockies have yet to announce a starter.
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