MINNEAPOLIS _ Swinging his bat wasn't getting Logan Morrison anywhere Monday. So when it mattered most, the Twins' slugger simply stopped.
Morrison, whose first three at-bats resulted in inning-ending strikeouts, watched four straight balls from Daniel Stumpf go by in the eighth inning, each of them low and outside. His walk with the bases loaded forced in the go-ahead run, and the Twins beat the Tigers, 4-2, at Target Field.
Eddie Rosario provided an insurance run with some smart baserunning, too. When Robbie Grossman followed Morrison's walk with a pop fly to shallow center field, Rosario tagged up at third base and bluffed as though he was going to run home. Leonys Martin, who caught the popup, saw Rosario stop after a couple of steps and began jogging toward the infield, convinced the Twins' runner was going nowhere.
As soon as Martin relaxed, however, Rosario took off for the plate again, and a shocked Martin simply heaved the ball toward the plate. It sailed far off course, and Rosario scored easily, helping the Twins win back-to-back home games for the first time in six weeks, since April 10-12.
The late rally also delivered Jose Berrios' team-high fifth win. The right-hander allowed just three hits over eight innings, and none after the third inning, retiring 16 of the final 17 hitters he faced.
Nicholas Castallanos ambushed Berrios by clubbing the first pitch he saw onto the center field berm, and Castellanos also delivered a third-inning single that scored Jose Iglesias with the Tigers' second run. But Berrios was near-perfect after that, and though some outs were hit hard, he retired the Tigers in order for four straight innings after that.
Fernando Rodney retired the Tigers in order in the ninth, with Rosario making a leaping catch at the wall to record the final out. It was Rodney's 10th consecutive scoreless inning, and earned him his 10th save of the season. It's the 10th time he's reached double figures in his career, and seventh in a row.
The Twins, who have scored more than four runs only once on this week-old homestand, had trouble getting their offense revved up once more on Monday, but this time they say it coming. The Tigers started a veteran, soft-throwing left-hander, and Blaine Hardy wasn't much less effective than Wade LeBlanc and Brent Suter already were in the past week.
That is to say: These guys completely fluster a Twins lineup built to face right-handers with velocity. Somebody check: Jamie Moyer is retired, right?
Hardy, always a reliever during his five big-league seasons until Jordan Zimmermann's shoulder impingement last week transformed him into an emergency starter, used his 87-mph "heater" to induce one harmless pop fly after another for four innings, while the Tigers handed him a couple of runs to work with. But in the fifth inning, the Twins finally got used to his speed, or lack of it, and began hitting him with more authority.
Robbie Grossman singled to open the inning, and after two more quick outs, Brian Dozier looped a pitch into right field for a double. Max Kepler followed with a ball high off the right-field wall, missing a three-run homer by a couple of feet but collecting a two-run double instead. The Twins thought they scored the tie-breaking run moments later, when Eduardo Escobar lined a sharp single to left, but the replay umpire disagreed.
Kepler sprinted to the plate on Escobar's hit and slid across the plate. But the throw from JaCoby Jones in left reached catcher James McCann on the fly, and he reached out to tag Kepler as he slid by. Home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg signaled safe, but Gardenhire challenged the call, and though the 17,161 umpires in Target Field thought the replay showed McCann missing Kepler, the umpire watching video in New York ruled he tagged him.
