Minnesota Twins keep their uptick ticking with series-opening win over Detroit Tigers

DETROIT - The Twins beat the Detroit Tigers for the 500th time since they moved to Minnesota in 1961, and this one was no more important than the previous 499.

So says Rocco Baldelli. Got it? So put down those AL Central standings, which don’t matter in June.

Byron Buxton cracked a 425-foot homer over the bullpens in left field, slid home two innings later on the Twins’ first successful squeeze bunt in nearly two years, and Brooks Lee drove in a pair of runs with a double and single, earning the Twins their third straight win, 4-1 at Comerica Park. It even gave the Twins a positive record all-time in Detroit, 237-236-1.

And this is the part to keep to yourself: The Twins, winners of three consecutive games, pulled within 10½ games of the runaway first-place Tigers, a positive first step during a weekend when getting swept might have all but eliminated the Twins from the AL Central race.

Whoops.

“That’s the furthest thing from relevant, in my opinion. We just worry about today,” Baldelli insisted before the game. “If that was on anybody’s mind here, that would be an incredibly unproductive way to prepare for today’s game. I wouldn’t expect anyone to be thinking anything like that.”

He’s got a point: Players like David Festa had bigger reasons than midseason standings to focus on. Like, keeping his job.

It wasn’t actually that critical, but Festa was coming off an eight-run disaster against Milwaukee, and now taking on the American League’s highest-scoring team. He must not have thought about it that way — because Festa was brilliant.

And humble. “Obviously, I was a lot sharper tonight, but I felt the same” on the mound, Festa said. “I didn’t execute the same, that’s for sure. I pitched better tonight, put myself in better spots.”

A lot better. The second-year righthander faced 20 Tigers and retired 17, a dozen of them in a row. The lone Tiger to reach third base against him was Spencer Torkelson, clipped by a fastball in the second inning. He moved to third on Dillon Dingler’s two-out single, but Festa simply got Parker Meadows to knock the ball back to him, ending the inning.

“He was really impressive. He had everything going. Had really good feel for his offspeed pitches today [and] was able to use them against really everyone in their lineup,” Baldelli said. “Fantastic night for him. I told him that when I shook his hand. He was on his game, and he didn’t let up at any point.”

Still, when Festa gave up a second hit, Gleyber Torres’ two-out single in the sixth inning, he was pulled despite having thrown only 75 pitches, the Twins’ lack of trust in him facing hitters a third time still dictating his usage. But Danny Coulombe retired pinch hitter Jahmai Jones on a forceout to end the “threat.”

After receiving only one scoreless outing from a starting pitcher this month, the Twins now have received three in a row, from Joe Ryan, Simeon Woods Richardson and Festa, a total of 16⅔ scoreless innings.

“I feel like it’s almost contagious,” Festa said. “They say hitting’s contagious, I think pitching is as well. We’re just trying to stack good outings on good outings, and I’m looking forward to watching Bailey pitch tomorrow.”

Festa was given a lead in the fourth inning when Lee followed Matt Wallner’s two-out double with one of his own off Detroit starter Sawyer Gipson-Long, and the Twins added another run in each of the next three innings. One came when Buxton punished a middle-middle mistake by Gipson-Long, driving his eighth home run of the month deep into the crowd.

Willi Castro provided the Twins’ final run, a manufactured one: Buxton walked, stole second and moved to third on a groundout. Then came a signal from the bench: Bunt.

BOXSCORE: Twins 4, Detroit 1

MLB standings

Castro did, right up the first base line, and the Tigers had no chance of preventing Buxton from scoring. It was the Twins’ first successful squeeze bunt since Ryan Jeffers laid one down at Oakland on July 15, 2023.

“Willi executed it just great. That whole sequence was pretty great,” Baldelli said. “Willi lays down a perfect safety squeeze. It doesn’t get much better than that when you’re trying to tack a run on.”

That extra run made Griffin Jax’s difficult eighth inning a little less tense. Colt Keith tripled to right with one out, followed by an RBI single by Torres. Another single brought the tying run to the plate, but Jax struck out the final two batters of the inning, shouting at himself as he walked off the mound. Jhoan Duran followed with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 12th save.