Tigers parlay three homers into a 6-3 win over trade deadline-decimated Twins
Published in Baseball
DETROIT — Baseballs were flying out of Comerica Park Monday night.
The Detroit Tigers, a little bleary after some late night travel from Philadelphia Sunday night, slugged themselves awake in the middle innings, parlaying three homers into a 6-3 win over the trade deadline-decimated Minnesota Twins, in the first of three.
They were down 2-0 and being picked apart by rookie Travis Adams, making his first career start after four relief appearances. He breezed through the Tigers order, facing the minimum through four innings.
But with one on and one out in the fifth, Wenceel Perez went down and lifted a low slider into the right field seats to tie the game. It was third homer in his last 12 at-bats and his ninth on the year in 197 plate appearances.
It took him 425 plate appearances to hit his ninth last year.
The Tigers were down 3-2 in the sixth and facing another unfamiliar right-hander, Noah Davis. They scratched out the tying run on singles by Javier Baez and Colt Keith and a ground out by Gleyber Torres.
Up stepped Kerry Carpenter. And with the crowd chanting his name, he obliged, demolishing a 2-0 sinker, sending it on a high arc, 437 feet deep into the seats in right field.
It was homer No. 19 for Carpenter.
Catcher Dillon Dingler greeted former Tiger Erasmo Ramirez with a first-pitch home run to left field in the seventh, his 10th.
The Tigers have six players with double-digit homers this season. And all that damage put right-hander Casey Mize in position to win his 10th game of the season.
Mize pitched his best game in a month, a quality start after three rocky outings. He was mostly in the strike zone with his entire arsenal, mixing splitters and an array of different slider shapes and speeds off a 94-95 mph four-seam fastball.
He allowed just four hits. But three of them were, well, loud.
Mize surrendered three solo home runs, none of them wall-scrapers:
-- Ryan Jeffers launched a sinker 420 feet to center field in the first inning.
-- Trevor Larnach sent an 0-2, center-cut splitter 434 feet to right in the sixth.
-- Matt Wallner blasted another mislocated splitter 437 feet into the shrubbery in centerfield in the sixth.
Solo homers don’t beat you, the saying goes. And the Tigers’ bullpen made sure that old adage rang true.
Brant Hurter, Tommy Khanle and Kyle Finnegan strung three straight zeros to finish the game.
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