Starter Kyle Gibson and the Twins bullpen struggled against the Detroit Tigers Sunday afternoon in a 13-4 loss at Target Field.
Gibson (11-10) allowed five runs on eight hits and four walks over 4- 2/3 innings. He also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. Gibson has struggled in his last several starts — this was the third time in four games he allowed five runs, according to the Associated Press.
Minnesota roughed up Tigers starter Max Scherzer, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, scoring three runs on seven hits, but the Detroit bullpen allowed just one earned run on five hits the rest of the way, MLB.com reports.
The Tigers scored first, getting three runs in the third, but the Twins came back to tie it up in the bottom half of the inning. Danny Santana brought home two runs on a double, and then scored on a single from Brian Dozier.
It was pretty much all Detroit after that. The Tigers scored two runs in fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and four more in the eighth, to put the game out of reach.
The Twins had chances against the Tigers, including the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with one out. But Dozier flied out and Joe Mauer struck out to strand all three runners, according to MLB.com.
The two teams ended up splitting the four-game series, a high-scoring affair in which Minnesota scored 32 runs in winning the first two games, and Detroit had 21 runs to win the last two.
The two teams combined for 117 hits over the series as well. The Tigers hit 60 of them, which sets a new franchise record — for Minnesota — for most hits allowed in a four-game series. The old record was 59 hits by Texas in July 2011, according to the Associated Press.
The Twins have Monday off before heading to play Kansas City and then Baltimore, both contenders in their divisions.
Minnesota is 58-72 on the season, and is in last place in the American League Central Division, 14.5 games behind first-place Kansas City.
Injury report: Twins starting pitcher Yohan Pino will be unable to throw for two to four weeks after an MRI showed he has a minor elbow sprain. Pino was recalled from Triple-A Rochester to start the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader and was optioned back after the start. He will be placed on the Triple-A disabled list.
