September 6, 2020

Winning streak grows to 5 games after third straight Twins win over Tigers

Remember the six-game losing streak? No? Well, that’s because the Twins have now won five straight games, including their third in a row over the Detroit Tigers.

Miguel Sano on Saturday tied the game 3-3 in the ninth on an RBI single, then Byron Buxton, one of the fastest players in baseball, beat out an infield hit at first base to score the runner from third and the Twins won in walk-off fashion, 4-3.

The Twins are now 25-16, still a half game behind the league-leading Chicago White Sox. The Twins also improved to a major league best 17-4 at home. They have two more games against the Tigers. A five-game sweep would certainly be nice.

Starter Kenta Maeda didn’t get the win, but he still gave the team another quality start, striking out eight over six innings. The win went to reliever, Jorge Alcala.

Sano paced the Twins on Saturday. He went 3-for-4 at the plate with a home run, a run scored and two runs batted in.

Ex-Dodger Rich Hill gets the ball on Sunday. He’s looking to bounce back from his previous start after he lasted only three-plus innings.

Extra innings…

-Sano’s home run was his ninth of the season.

-After the Tigers leave town, the Twins head to St. Louis to play a doubleheader with the Cardinals on Tuesday, then they get two days off before beginning what appears to be the most important 10 games of the season. The Cleveland Indians come to Target Field for three games, then the Twins hit the road to play seven games in Chicago: four against the White Sox and three more against the Cubs. Any missteps during this stretch and it could spell the difference between winning the division or entering the playoffs as a wild card team.

-Which team has the second best record in baseball? The Tampa Bay Rays at 27-13. They lead the American League East and the struggling New York Yankees by 5.5 games.

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.