Home runs from Carlos Correa and Joey Gallo were all the Twins could muster Saturday night as they fell 3-2 to the Detroit Tigers in a game nationally televised on FOX.
Correa homered in the sixth and Gallo went deep in the seventh, but that’s all the run support Minnesota starter Pablo Lopez got despite an outstanding effort in which he struck out 10 Tigers in six innings of work. He allowed three runs, all of them in the second inning when he gave up four singles and a walk.
Minnesota loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth but Royce Lewis struck out swinging with a full count to end the threat.
In the ninth, Ryan Jeffers reached on a walk with one out and then Kyle Farmer pinch hit for Michael A. Taylor and struck out before Eddy Julien ended the game with a swinging strikeout, the 12th of the game for the strikeout-prone Twins.
Byron Buxton left the game with back spasms. He.officially exited in the eighth inning when Willi Castro pinch hit in his place, but he appeared to be suffering from spasms after grounding out in the sixth inning. His status for Sunday’s series finale in Detroit is unclear, but he’s officially considered day-to-day.
The Twins also lost reliever Jose De Leon to an arm injury. De Leon entered the game in the eighth inning and grabbed his elbow after throwing a warmup pitch and wound up leaving the game. The severity of his injury is unknown.
The loss ends the Twins’ three-game win streak and drops them back to .500 at 39-39, just one game ahead of the Guardians for the lead in the AL Central.
Up next: Twins at Tigers, Sunday at 12:10 p.m.
