Twins shut out Tigers for fourth straight win in League season

Jake Odorizzi allowed just one hit over seven innings, and Mitch Garver and Max Kepler homered to lead the Minnesota Twins to their fourth straight victory, 6-0 over the Detroit Tigers on Friday night in Minneapolis. Odorizzi (5-2), the reigning American League Player of the Week after allowing six hits and pitching 13 scoreless innings in wins over the Houston Astros and New York Yankees, won his fifth consecutive start.

He extended his scoreless innings streak to 20. He has allowed just three runs over 31 1/3 innings (0.86 ERA) in his past five starts. Odorizzi, who didn't walk a batter and struck out five, nearly saw his scoreless streak snapped in the first inning when he gave up a one-out line-drive double off the top of the wall in right field to Christin Stewart. The ball missed being a home run by about two feet.

The right-hander then retired the next 20 batters in a row with the help of another highlight-reel catch by Byron Buxton, who leapt and grabbed Nicholas Castellanos' 403-foot drive at the top of the fence in left-centre following Stewart's double. Jorge Polanco doubled and drove in three runs, and Garver walked three times scored twice for the Twins, who have outscored their opponents 26-1 while winning each of their past four games.

Tigers starter Tyson Ross (1-5) allowed six runs on six hits and four walks over five-plus innings. Ross, who struck out two, fell to 0-5 in his career against the Twins. Minnesota took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a bases-loaded double to left by Polanco.

In the fourth inning, Garver extended the lead to 4-0 with his career-high eighth home run of the season. The 407-foot, two-run blast landed in the second deck in left field. Kepler led off the fifth with his eighth home run of the season into the flower bed above the fence in right to make it 5-0. Polanco drove in the final run with a two-out, bases-loaded walk off reliever Victor Alcantara in the sixth.

(With inputs from agencies.)