Twins earn doubleheader split with 8-3 victory over Tigers

C.J. Cron had four hits including a three-run homer, and Marwin Gonzalez also homered as the Minnesota Twins earned a doubleheader split with an 8-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night in Minneapolis. Eddie Rosario finished with three hits, and Byron Buxton and Gonzalez each had two hits for Minnesota, which bounced back from a 5-3 loss in the opener to win for the fifth time in its last six games.

The Twins improved to 11-2 following a loss. Kohl Stewart (1-1), making his sixth career start and second of the season, picked up the win, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks over six innings. He struck out two. Relievers Matt Magill, Mike Morin and Tyler Duffey, who struck out the side in the ninth, combined to blank the Tigers on one hit over the final three innings.

Jeimer Candelario hit a two-run homer, and Nicholas Castellanos added two hits for Detroit. Left-hander Gregory Soto, recalled from Double-A Erie, took the loss in his major league debut. The Tigers' 2017 Minor League Pitcher of the Year allowed seven runs on nine hits and two walks in four innings, striking out one. The Twins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Rosario had an RBI single to drive in Gonzalez, who singled and went to third when center fielder JaCoby Jones allowed the ball to bounce past him and roll to the wall. Max Kepler hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Nelson Cruz, who had walked. The Tigers tied it in the second on Candelario's second homer of the season, a 388-foot drive to right that drove in John Hicks, who had walked.

Minnesota regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning when Buxton doubled to the gap in left-center and scored on Mitch Garver's triple off the wall in right-center. After Gonzalez walked, Cruz drove in Garver with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2. The Tigers cut it to 4-3 in the third on an RBI by Brandon Dixon, driving in Christin Stewart who had doubled, but the Twins pulled away thanks to Cron's three-run homer in the fifth and a solo shot by Gonzalez in the sixth.

 

(With inputs from agencies.)