MINNEAPOLIS _ Max Kepler's was the fastest. Jake Cave's was the longest. But Eddie Rosario's home run Sunday was the most critical.
The Twins added three more home runs to their weekend power splurge, and it's only natural for these long-ball artisans to compare each other's work. The most important factor, though, is that Rosario's long fly ball carried just beyond the flower beds above Target Field's right-field wall, an eighth-inning blast that broke a tie and earned the Twins their fifth win in six games, 5-4 over the Tigers.
The Twins bashed 13 baseballs out of the park in four games with Detroit, with nine different players doing the damage, an audacious display for a team that ranks 12th in the AL in long balls. And they spread them out over the weekend, launching at least three in all four games.
That's the longest streak of three-homer games in Twins history, tying a Brian Dozier-fueled stretch of four games from Sept. 3-6, 2016. Dozier is gone now, but the Twins' power apparently isn't.
The Twins scored a pair of runs in the second inning via a more mundane route, putting together a rally consisting of two singles, Rosario's sacrifice fly and a run-scoring double by Jorge Polanco. But the rest of the day for the Twins' offense amounted to waiting for launch.
Kepler delivered first, smacking a high 3-2 fastball from Zac Reininger into the first row in right center, a ball that so surprised him by going out, Kepler was nearly to second base before umpire Laz Diaz signaled it was gone.
Two batters later, Cave unloaded on another 3-2 pitch from Reininger, blasting it to rarified territory in Target Field. The ball landed in the Catch club above the batters eye in center field, traveling an estimated 450 feet before interrupting a patron's lunch. Cave is the fourth player ever to reach Catch, joining Jim Thome in 2010 (before the club had been created), ByungHo Park in 2016, and Miguel Sano in 2017.
But after the Tigers tied the game by preying on Jake Odorizzi's lone bad inning, the Twins needed another home run, and Rosario delivered it. After falling behind 0-2 to Tigers right-hander Alex Wilson, Rosario turned on a fastball and trotted around the bases, collecting his team-leading 22nd home of the season, a blast that earned him a curtain call from the 27,917 on hand.
Odorizzi was brilliant for five innings, retiring 15 of the first 18 batters he faced, including 12 straight heading into the sixth. Back-to-back doubles to Victor Martinez and Jim Adduci scored a Detroit run, but he allowed nothing else _ until tiring in the sixth. Things changed in a hurry: Jaime Candelario doubled, Jose Iglesias and Nicholas Castellanos walked, and Odorizzi's day was done.
Matt Magill relieved and walked in a run, allowed another on Martinez's double-play ball, and gave up a game-tying single to Adduci, handing Odorizzi his 14th no-decision. But the bullpen kept the Tigers from scoring again, with Trevor Hildenberger earning his third win of the season by recording the game's final four outs.
