McCann, Cabrera Homer To Lead Tigers Past Twins 8-1
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Matt Boyd breezed through eight innings, backed by home runs from James McCann and Miguel Cabrera as the Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 8-1 on Tuesday night to step forward in the AL wild card race.
With Baltimore's loss to Boston, the Tigers cut the deficit between them and the second spot to 1½ games with 12 to go.
Boyd (6-4) bounced back from an 8-1 defeat by the Twins at home last week, giving up a homer to Robbie Grossman in the seventh among only three hits allowed. He matched his career best with seven strikeouts and walked just one, after being pounded by Minnesota for seven runs in 3 2/3 innings on Sept. 13.
McCann, in the designated hitter role for the injured Victor Martinez, sent a three-run shot into second deck above left-center in a four-run sixth against Hector Santiago (12-9). Cabrera hit his 34th homer the following inning, a two-run drive against Michael Tonkin.
Cameron Maybin had an RBI triple, Justin Upton drove in two runs and everybody in the lineup had at least one hit for the Tigers, who damaged their playoff push with a four-game split against the worst-in-the-majors Twins last week. They're only 8-9 this month.
Detroit played without Martinez (bruised knee) and second baseman Ian Kinsler (concussion-like symptoms), both having been hit by pitches from Cleveland's Trevor Bauer on Sunday. The beanings could have fired up the team at a critical time.
The significance of the situation wasn't lost on Cabrera, who started the fourth inning by crushing a double to right field. The hulking power hitter hustled to advance a base by tagging on a fly ball to medium-range center field. Then he rumbled home for a 2-0 lead on a groundout to third, sliding underneath catcher John Ryan Murphy's tag after the throw home to try to get the double play.
Brian Dozier had a lonely leadoff single in the bottom of the first and stole second base with none out, only to be stranded. Max Kepler walked in the second inning and was quickly caught stealing. Then Boyd retired 14 straight batters until Grossman went deep with one out in the seventh.
Dozier stretched his hitting streak to 23 straight games, the longest for the Twins in nine years since Torii Hunter had one of the same length and the fourth-longest in the major leagues this season.
MENDING ZIMMERMANN
Tigers right-hander Jordan Zimmerman threw another simulated game without physical trouble, trying to return from a neck injury that has limited him to two starts since June that didn't last past the second inning, but his mechanics aren't not quite right enough yet to return to the rotation.
ROSARIO WON'T RETURN
Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario was diagnosed with a broken left thumb after diving into first base trying to beat out a grounder in the game on Saturday, and he'll need six weeks to recover. After a rough start that led to his demotion to Triple-A in May, Rosario rebounded and became one of nine Twins players to reach 10 home runs. This is the first year they've had that many since 2004.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Tigers: The likelihood of 3B Nick Castellanos (broken hand) returning this season has lessened, after feeling discomfort on some swings during batting practice on Monday at the minor league complex in Lakeland, Florida.
Twins: 3B Miguel Sano (sore back) missed his seventh straight game, but he's been taking groundballs and batting practice and should be able to play this week. 1B Joe Mauer was given another rest for his ailing quadriceps.
UP NEXT
Tigers: RHP Buck Farmer (0-0, 4.07 ERA in 13 relief appearances) was chosen to make his first major league start of 2016 on Wednesday night, the latest to fill Zimmermann's spot with Mike Pelfrey and Anibal Sanchez struggling all season. Farmer has made seven starts over the last two seasons for the Tigers and 20 starts this year for Triple-A Toledo.
Twins: RHP Jose Berrios (2-7, 8.88 ERA) will make his 13th start in the middle game of the series. He finished only four innings in his last turn, but the rookie allowed two runs to match a season low.
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