MINNEAPOLIS _ Lance Lynn came through on his end, leaving it up to the offense to capitalize on his best outing as a Twin.
And with a splash of runs in the fifth inning, a struggling lineup provided support for their scuffling pitcher. And it allowed the Twins to beat the Tigers, 6-0, at Target Field.
The big inning sets the Twins up for a possible sweep of the Ron Gardenhire-led Tigers on Wednesday when the teams wrap up a three-game series.
Shut down by Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd for most of the game, the tide changed in the fifth when Boyd walked Mitch Garver and Logan Morrison to start the inning. Tigers pitching coach Chris Bosio went to the mound and, after checking with Boyd, signaled to the dugout for the trainer to join them.
A couple minutes later, Boyd was walking off the mound with a left oblique spasm, and reliever Warrick Saupold had to quickly warm up.
Twins manager Paul Molitor took a shot right there, sending up Max Kepler as a pinch hitter, but Kepler popped out.
Ehire Adrianza, however, drilled a 3-1 pitch from Saupold to the base of the wall in right for an RBI double for the first run of the game. Another run was snuffed out at home plate when Logan Morrison was thrown out while trying to score on a grounder to third.
But Brian Dozier came through with a clutch two-out, two-run double to right that put the Twins ahead 3-0.
The Twins added two in the seventh _ on an RBI double by Ehire Adrianza and RBI single by Byron Buxton _ pushed the lead to 5-0.
Lynn, with an ERA of 7.47 entering the game, needed a good outing like he needed air to breathe. The reasons behind his struggles were numerous.
"More than one thing we'd like to see him start to improve," Twins manager Paul Molitor said before the game. "It's nothing he's not aware of. He's got to work ahead, he's got to finish hitters. Even when he throws strikes he has to command in the zone. We all know he throws a lot of fastballs.
"He's just looking for something to jumpstart."
Lynn came out firing strikes unlike any of his previous eight starts. He threw first pitch strikes to 11 of the first 15 batter he faced. He stayed ahead in the count and put Tigers batters in defense mode. He retired seven of eight Tigers batters during one stretch.
Staying around the plate made Detroit put the ball in play in the later innings. He needed just 14 pitches to get through the fourth, 12 in the fifth and just four to get through six.
Lynn got the first two batters out in the seventh but hit JaCoby Jones then walked Jose Iglesias on four pitches, prompting Molitor to go to the bullpen. Lynn screamed at himself, as he walked off the mound, for leaving such a mess. But the announced crowd of 25,559 gave him a standing ovation as he lowered his ERA to 6.34 with his 62/3 shutout innings.
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