For the second time in three days, the Detroit Tigers trailed by four runs before recording an out.
The scenario first happened in Sunday's 6-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals. Rookie left-hander Tarik Skubal allowed a double, single, three-run home run and solo shot to begin his outing. The same happened Tuesday to lefty Tyler Alexander against the Minnesota Twins. He gave up a single, single, walk and grand slam to Mitch Garver.
This time, Eric Haase's power delivered a game-tying grand slam in the top of the ninth inning. He battled with Twins reliever Hansel Robles for eight pitches before sending his fastball over the wall in right field to even the score at five runs.
The Tigers (48-55) mounted a comeback for a 6-5 win over the Twins in the 11th inning at Target Field on Miguel Cabrera's single to score Jonathan Schoop — the free extra-inning runner — against right-handed reliever Jorge Alcala. (With the 2,936th hit of his career, Cabrera passed Barry Bonds for 37th on the all-time MLB hits leaderboard.)
Lefty Daniel Norris pitched a perfect 11th inning, snapping a four-game losing streak.
In the ninth, Cabrera doubled with one out against Robles, sending Robbie Grossman to third base. Jeimer Candelario drew a walk to load the bases. Haase's shot to right was the first grand slam of his career and 17th home run in 54 games this season.
To send the game to extra innings, Kyle Funkhouser pitched out of a jam he created in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Tigers threatened in the 10th inning when Harold Castro dropped down a sacrifice bunt to advance Victor Reyes — the extra-inning runner at second base — to third. Akil Baddoo struck out looking, and the Twins replaced left-hander Caleb Thielbar with Alcala, a right-hander, to face Schoop.
Schoop grounded out on the first pitch from Alcala, ending his hitting streak at 16 games.
Jose Cisnero took over for Funkhouser in the 10th inning. He loaded the bases with one out but struck out Max Kepler and Miguel Sano — both with 98 mph fastballs — to keep the Twins from scoring. Before Cabrera's go-ahead single, Grossman advanced Schoop from second to third base on a deep fly out.
