MINNEAPOLIS _ Jake Odorizzi gave up allowing runs weeks ago. Now he's swearing off baserunners altogether, too.
The Twins right-hander gave up a first-inning double to Christin Stewart on Friday, then retired the remaining 20 batters he faced, leading the Twins to their fourth straight victory, 6-0 over the overmatched Tigers at Target Field.
It was Odorizzi's third consecutive start in which he didn't allow a run, a streak of scoreless innings that now stretches to 20 straight. It was also the sixth game in the 29-year-old's career in which he allowed only one run over seven or more innings _ but it was the first in which he didn't allow a walk.
Mitch Garver and Max Kepler each homered off Tigers starter Tyson Ross, Jorge Polanco drove in three runs with a double and a bases-loaded walk, and the Twins, as they have in all four homestands thus far, set a winning tone with a first-game win.
Odorizzi had more to do with that than anyone. Relying on a four-seam fastball he could spot anywhere in the strike zone, he kept elevating his pitches, forcing one harmless fly ball or popup after another. The Tigers hit only three ground balls all night, yet rarely threatened to hit a ball over Target Field's fences. The only one that came close was a first-inning fly ball by Nicholas Castellanos, a sure double that Byron Buxton bounced off the center field wall to catch.
After 95 pitches that Detroit could do little with, Odorizzi gave way to Matt Magill and Fernando Romero for the final two innings. Magill retired all three batters he faced, but Romero allowed back-to-back singles to open the ninth inning, foiling the Twins' attempt to record the 18th one-hitter in Twins history. But Romero protected the Twins' fifth shutout of the season by inducing Castellanos to fly out to Buxton just short of the warning track.
Odorizzi lowered his ERA to 2.32 with his seven strong innings, and collected his fifth victory of the season. Odorizzi (5-2), Jose Berrios (6-1) and Martin Perez (5-0) give the Twins three five-game winners through the season's first 36 games for only the second time ever. Joe Mays, Brad Radke and Eric Milton had similarly strong starts to the 2001 season.
The victory came at a cost, however: Marwin Gonzalez left the game with a bruised face after colliding with Tigers first baseman Niko Goodrum while trying to beat out an infield hit in the sixth inning. Goodrum's knee slammed into Gonzalez's helmet, and the Twins' third baseman laid on the ground for several minutes before rising and walking to the dugout.
Goodrum also left the game after the collision, having suffered a knee bruise.
Gonzalez was hit by a Ross pitch in his right knee in the fourth inning, but recovered enough to race to third base on an errant pickoff throw moments later. And he scored on Garver's upper-deck jolt to left field, a 400-foot shot that gives the catcher eight homers on the season, already one more than he hit in 2018.
The Twins handed Odorizzi an early lead with a two-run third inning off Ross, loading the bases on a hit and two walks. Polanco drove home the runs with a double that hugged the left-field line.
Kepler added a fifth-inning home run into the planters atop the right field wall, his eighth of the year.
