Rising from the ashes of the fire sale, Twins overpower first-place Tigers 9-4

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Aug 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT – The Minnesota Twins won their first series since the All-Star break after Wednesday’s 9-4 victory at Comerica Park, taking two of three games from the first-place Detroit Tigers, behind a strong performance from Thomas Hatch.

Yes, that’s the name of a Twins pitcher. And he threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

Hatch was at a park near his home in Dallas when he learned the Twins claimed him off waivers Monday. After spending most of the season as a starter at Class AAA, he made one relief appearance with the Kansas City Royals before he was designated for assignment and shuttled to his next team.

OK, at least the offense was led by some more familiar names. Rookie second baseman Luke Keaschall hit a pair of doubles and drove in three runs, continuing an incredible start to his career. Brooks Lee, Austin Martin and Alan Roden all homered.

The young guys want to show they can play at this level, too. The Twins scored runs in six of the first seven innings, knocking Tigers starter Jack Flaherty out of the game after 4 2/3 innings.

The Twins took an early 3-0 lead. After Roden and Matt Wallner led off the game with back-to-back singles, Keaschall lined an elevated fastball past diving left fielder Riley Greene for a two-run double. Lee and Edouard Julien started the second inning with back-to-back singles before Lee scored on a wild pitch.

Detroit, now 16 games above .500 and leading the American League Central by seven games starting the day, erased its deficit with three homers off starter Pierson Ohl. Spencer Torkelson deposited a changeup beyond the left field wall in a 2-2 count during the second inning. Zach McKinstry hit a leadoff homer in the third, driving a low changeup that was nearly robbed at the wall by left fielder Kody Clemens, but Clemens dropped the ball when his arm collided with the wall.

Kerry Carpenter, a longtime Twins nemesis, saw almost all changeups in a seven-pitch at-bat, and he hit the last one over the right field wall for a go-ahead, two-run homer.

No problem for the Twins offense. Lee lifted a first-pitch fastball to the seats in right-center field for his 11th home run of the season, a game-tying swing, with one out in the fourth inning.

The Twins pulled ahead in the fifth after Wallner reached on an error. Ryan Jeffers smacked an RBI double into the right-center gap, extending his hitting streak to nine games, and Keaschall followed with an RBI double that bounced down the right-field line and out of play.

Keaschall has reached base in all nine career games he’s played, the second-longest on-base streak by a Twins player to begin his career. Australian infielder Glenn Williams owns the team record with a 13-game streak from June 7-28, 2005.

Martin opened the sixth inning with a pinch-hit homer off lefty reliever Tyler Holton, pulling an inside fastball past the left field wall. Two batters later, Roden hit his first homer in a Twins uniform in a lefty-on-lefty matchup. Roden, acquired from Toronto in the Louie Varland/Ty France trade, drilled a sweeper to the right-center seats for his second career home run.

The Twins were under pressure to win out of the All-Star break if they wanted to avoid turning into sellers at the trade deadline, and they fell apart. It wasn’t until Hatch, who allowed two hits and one walk against 15 batters, Kody Funderburk and Brooks Kriske combined to pitch 6 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen that the Twins won a series.

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