DETROIT TIGERS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 2 IN DETROIT

Date:  Sunday, October 2, 2022.

Batting star:  Carlos Correa was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Griffin Jax pitched a perfect inning, striking out two.  Jorge Lopez pitched a scoreless inning, walking one.

Opposition stars:  Miguel Cabrera was 2-for-4.  Eric Haase hit a home run, his fourteenth.  Victor Reyes hit a home run, his second.  Joey Wentz pitched 4.2 innings, giving up two unearned runs on two hits and four walks and striking out four.  

The game:  Correa hit a one-out double in the first, but nothing came of it.  In the bottom of the first Akil Baddoo led off with a walk, went to third on a stolen base-plus-error, and scored when Haase reached on an error with one out.  Cabrera singled to put men on first and third and a wild pitch made it 2-0 Tigers.  It went to 3-0 in the third when Haase hit a two-out home run.

The Twins got on the board in the fifth.  Ryan Jeffers reached on a two-base error to start the inning.  One-out walks to Gilberto Celestino and Jose Miranda loaded the bases and Correa walked to force in a run.  Nick Gordon then hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 3-2.

That was as good as it would get for the Twins.  Neither team threatened until the eighth, when Reyes led off with a home run.  Baddoo singled and Riley Greene walked, putting men on first and second.  With one out, Cabrera hit an RBI single to make it 5-2, and that’s where it ended.

WP:  Alex Lange (7-4).

LP:  Simeon Woods Richardson (0-1).

S:  Gregory Soto (30).

Notes:  Jeffers was behind the plate in place of Gary Sanchez.  Gordon was at second in place of Jorge Polanco.  Gordon’s primary position that year was left field, but Jake Cave manned that position in this game.  Matt Wallner was in right in place of Max Kepler.

This was the major league debut of Simeon Woods Richardson.  He actually did pretty well, pitching five innings and giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits and two walks while striking out three.

The Twins kept talking in 2024 about how many young players they were using, but many of those players were already with the big club at the end of 2022.  Miranda, Jeffers, Wallner, Richardson, and Jax all played in this game.  They may not have been grizzled veterans in 2024, but they weren’t a bunch of kids, either.

A few other random Twins who played in this game were Jermaine Palacios, Mark Contreras, and Caleb Hamilton.

The Twins had been in contention much of the 2022 season, but collapsed down the stretch.  Where have I heard that before?

Record:  Detroit was 65-93, in fourth place in the AL Central, 24.5 games behind Cleveland.  They finished 66-96, in fourth place, twenty-six games behind Cleveland.

Minnesota was 77-82, in third place in the AL Central, thirteen games behind Cleveland.  They finished 78-84, in third place, fourteen games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 1-3 (.250).