The Minnesota Twins turned the tables on the Detroit Tigers as they pulled out a 6-2 victory Wednesday night.
Ricky Nolasco (3-1) had his strongest start of the season for the Twins. He held the Tigers to four hits and two runs (none earned) in 5 1/3 innings, while striking out seven. Aaron Thompson, Michael Tonkin, Brian Duensing, Blaine Boyer and Glen Perkins came out of the bullpen and divided up the remaining outs to close out the victory.
It didn’t take the Twins long to get on the scoreboard. After Brian Dozier was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double, Torii Hunter put the Twins ahead with a solo-home run.
Minnesota erupted for five more in the third. After loading the bases with one out, Joe Mauer crushed a bases-clearing triple to the right-center field gap. Trevor Plouffe then followed with a triple of his own.
First time the Twins have had back-to-back triples since Sept. 29, 2011, when Denard Span and Ben Revere did it against Royals.
— Phil Miller (@MillerStrib) May 14, 2015
The three-run triple by Mauer gave him 19 RBIs on the season – second on the team.
By the way, Joe Mauer's 19 RBI are second on the #MNTwins. He didn't reach 19 RBI last year until June 21 (67 games).
— Tyler Mason (@tylermason21) May 14, 2015
The back-to-back triples chased Lobstein from the game after just 2 1/3 innings.
The Tigers took advantage of an error by Dozier in the sixth, as they scored two runs to cut the Twins lead to 6-2.
Then in the seventh Detroit again loaded the bases, but Tonkin came in and helped the Twins escape the jam by striking out Victor Martinez and getting Rajai Davis to hit a tapper back to the mound.
The Twins have now won 10 of their last 13 games.
The rubber game of the three-game series is Thursday afternoon. The Twins send Mike Pelfrey (3-0) to the mound against Detroit’s Anibal Sanchez (2-4).
