The Minnesota Twins opened their 11 game home-stand with a 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers, Monday night at Target Field.
Jose Iglesias was 3-for-5 with a home run and Yoenis Cespedes was 2-for-4 with a homer to lead the way for the Tigers.
Most of the damage happened early off Twins starter Tommy Milone (2-1). He gave up five runs, including four in the first inning on a solo-homer from Iglesias and a three-run shot by Cespedes. Milone lasted just four innings and was tagged with his first loss of the season.
But after the second, the Twins stopped the bleeding and started to climb back into the game. It was the bottom of the order that got things going for the Twins. Jordan Schafer was 3-for-4 with a run scored and Danny Santana was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
David Price (2-1) didn’t have his best stuff, but was still good enough to keep the Twins mostly off balance. He gave up three runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings to pick up the win for the Tigers.
The Twins pitching wasn’t great. After Milone retired just 10 of the 20 batters he faced, reliever Tim Stauffer got just five of his 10 batters. Yet the Tigers didn’t score any runs after the second inning, thanks to repeated baserunning miscues.
Blaine Boyer with three scoreless innings tonight. It's just his third career outing of at least three innings. And his first since 2010.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) April 28, 2015
Minnesota had a chance in the ninth. Schafer led off with a single and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Santana. But neither Brian Dozier nor Torii Hunter could take advantage of it, as Dozier struck out and Hunter ground out to end the game.
The Twins will send Mike Pelfrey to the mound on Tuesday night against Detroit’s Anibal Sanchez.
