DETROIT _ It just wasn't there on Saturday.
There's a new sound to Twins Baseball this season, the sound of pitches being pulverized. The crackling noise of bats squaring up baseballs, sending them airborne and raising opponents ERAs.
The return of the Twins to relevancy has been loud. Until Saturday, as a flock of Tigers pitchers managed to silence the Twins bats while handing them a 9-3 loss at Comerica Park.
Only twice did a Twins hitter produce an exit velocity of over 100 miles per hour _ both by Nelson Cruz, including a 108.3 mph blast that turned into a 445-foot homer in the eighth. This is an area the Twins have reached double digits in at times while taking over the major league lead in home runs and run scored.
But the BombaSquad bombed on Saturday.
And it came on a day in which the Tigers started reliever Buck Farmer. Not because they are experimenting with openers, because they didn't have a starter available. But the Tigers did more than get by on Saturday.
The Twins, meanwhile, needed a long outing from right-hander Kyle Gibson so a worn-down bullpen could get a break. But Gibson, 6-3, lasted only five innings, giving up five runs on eight hits and two walks _ including two home runs.
Gibson had good stuff on Saturday, but his command was off, and he didn't get many borderline calls from home plate umpire Chad Whitson.
The Twins gave Gibson a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by Jorge Polanco. But, with one out, Gibson gives up a single to Gordon Beckham after getting ahead 0-2. Then he walked Grayson Greiner, who began the day batting .174.
That brought up JaCoby Jones, who is trying to prove he can hit enough to be the Tigers long-term answer in center field. He blasted an 0-1 pitch to left to put Detroit ahead 3-1. Jones added a solo home run in the eighth.
After the Twins got within 3-2 in the third, Gibson worked the count to 2-2 against Christin Stewart and appeared to try to get him to chase a fastball above the strike zone. The problem was that the pitch stayed in the zone, and Stewart belted it for a home run and a 4-2 lead.
Detroit's Harold Castro added an RBI single in the fifth _ his first RBI for the Tigers in 12 games this season _ as the Tigers took a 5-2 lead.
That was all for Gibson, as the five earned runs he gave up on Saturday were the most off him since April 3 to Kansas City in his first start of the season.
Meanwhile the Tigers' unplanned bullpen day muffled the Twins bats. Farmer gave up one run over two innings. Left-hander Nick Ramirez held the Twins to one run over three innings, changing speeds along the way.
Right-hander Victor Alcantara, throwing nasty sinking fastballs, pitched two scoreless innings. Left-hander Blaine Hardy's first pitch of the day was belted by Cruz for his home run in the eighth. Detroit then scored four times off of Matt Magill in the eighth to open a 9-3 lead.
Despite leading by six runs, the Tigers still sent closer Shane Greene to the mound for the ninth. And he pitched a 1-2-3 inning to complete the bullpen mastery of the dangerous Twins lineup.
Rookie right-hander Ryan Eades, called up by the Twins on Saturday morning to give them an extra arm, made his major league debut in the seventh, pitching two scoreless innings.
