DETROIT _ Niko Goodrum was a teammate of Jose Berrios in seven different seasons with seven different teams. So is this how friends treat friends?
Goodrum crushed a second-inning home run off his pal, sliced a sixth-inning double that Berrios was fortunate bounced out of play, and then, once Berrios had departed, contributed a single in the middle of an four-run, eighth-inning rally and scored the winning run in the Tigers' 5-2 win over the Twins at Comerica Park.
Berrios was as sharp as ever against the other eight Tigers, limiting the non-Goodrums to five hits and continually turning unhittable with runners on base. The Tigers were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position against Berrios, and struck out seven times in six innings.
But the Tigers belted Twins reliever Addison Reed around the diamond, smacking five singles to score four runs and abruptly end the Twins' two-game winning streak. With the Twins leading 2-1, John Hicks started that mess with a one-out single to center, and Goodrum moved pinch-runner Ronnie Rodriguez into scoring position with a single of his own, his third hit of the night. Grayson Greiner grounded a hit to right to tie the game, and after a fly out, Victor Reyes lined a single to left to score Goodrum with the go-ahead run that deprived Berrios of his eighth victory.
The Tigers added two more runs off Reed when Leonys Martin chopped another single to right, scoring Greiner and, when Robbie Grossman's throw flew into the camera well next to Detroit's dugout, scoring Reyes, too.
The loss was a difficult one for the Twins, who had won four of Berrios' last five starts. But Matthew Boyd and four Detroit relievers shut down the Twins' offense, at least once Eddie Rosario pulled off a little more of his audacious baserunning.
Rosario took advantage of Martin, the Tigers' center fielder, twice in two minutes, handing Berrios a 2-0 lead that he protected through his six innings. The Twins' most fearless baserunner lined a first-inning base hit between (but on front of) Martin and right fielder Nicholas Castellanos, a routine single for anyone else, sending Brian Dozier to third. But Rosario rounded first base at full speed and roared toward second, catching Martin by surprise. The outfielder still had time to throw him out, but by rushing, Martin's throw sailed high and Rosario slid under it for a double.
As if that wasn't gutsy enough, Rosario was emboldened by the play to try his trick of victimizing an outfielder who hesitates. So when Eduardo Escobar followed with a ground ball hit directly at Martin, Rosario hustled to third base, rounded it, and then stopped. When Martin double-clutched in order to keep an eye on Rosario, the runner simply sprinted for the plate, far ahead of Martin's hopeless throw to the plate.
It was a brassy start for the Twins' offense, but what nobody knew was that they would collect no more. Boyd didn't allow a hit in four of his five innings, and the Twins didn't move another runner into scoring position until the eighth inning, when they stranded Escobar after a one-out triple.
Goodrum, a second-round pick of the Twins in 2010 who came up through the Minnesota farm system with Berrios, hit a 1-2 curveball from the right-hander far over the right-field wall in the second inning, his sixth home run of the season and second off his former team.
