MINNEAPOLIS — It was supposed to be a duel between two of the best young arms in the Central Division, and it very quickly devolved into a home run hitting contest.
When the smoke cleared from all the burnt wood Thursday night, the Twins-Tigers had combined for seven home runs and 14 balls hit with exit velocities of 103 mph or harder — and Tigers came out on top.
They avoided a sweep at Target Field scoring four runs in the final two innings to beat the Twins, 10-7.
Down 7-6 in the eighth, Harold Castro ripped his second double of the game, scoring Jonathan Schoop and tying the game. Dustin Garneau followed with a sacrifice fly and Willi Castro a two-out RBI single to give the Tigers a 9-7 lead.
Schoop, playing in his 1,000th game, had already extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a double and single, blasted his 22nd home run in the ninth for an extra layer of cushion.
Rookie right-hander Alex Lange got four impressive outs, striking out Miguel Sano with three straight change-ups to strand two runners in the seventh and then pitching a clean eighth.
Michael Fulmer put two runners on in the bottom of the ninth but closed it out for his 13th save.
Twins center fielder Byron Buxton broke a 6-6 tie in the seventh with his second home run of the game, a 427-foot rocket shot to the second deck in center field.
The Twins hit three home runs off Tigers rookie lefty Tarik Skubal, who made his final start of the season. Buxton got it started with a 426-foot laser to left field to lead off the game. Josh Donaldson launched a three-run home run (422 feet) in the third inning and Brent Rooker hit one onto the berm in center field (414 feet) in the fourth.
All three were hit off his fastball.
Not the last taste Skubal wanted to take into the offseason after an encouraging rookie season. He pitched 149.1 innings this season over 31 games and 29 starts. He set a club rookie strikeout record (164) and finished with a 4.34 ERA.
The only lingering concern has been the home run ball. He gave up 35 of them, second most in the American League. Twenty-two of them came on his best weapon — a mid-to-upper 90s four-seam fastball.
The Tigers similarly beat up on Twins prized rookie right-hander Joe Ryan. Specifically, Niko Goodrum beat up on him.
Ryan, whom the Twins got from the Rays in the Nelson Cruz trade, struck out four of the first six hitters, getting three of them on called third strikes with his fastball. Goodrum didn’t look at his fastball, he swung at it.
Twice.
He hit a 411-foot solo home run to right-center on an 0-2 fastball in the third inning. Then in the fourth he poleaxed another 91-mph heater and sent it 432 feet into the second deck in right-center – a three-run home run.
Goodrum, the former Twin, has nine homers this season. He’s hit more homers against the Twins in his career than against any other team (eight).
This was the third get-away game for the Tigers at Target Field. The first two were four-hour barnburners — a 12-9 Tigers loss and a 17-14 Tigers win.
This one was headed down that same path.
The Twins tied the game in the sixth on a two-out single by Luis Arraez off reliever Kyle Funkhouser. Drew Hutchison had restored some order in the fourth and fifth innings, but a lead-off single by Max Kepler and then two long fly outs to the track in right in the sixth prompted the hook from manager AJ Hinch.
Funkhouser then had the misfortune of trying to throw a 96-mph fastball on a 3-1 count past Buxton in the seventh. The ball left his bat with an exit velocity of 110 mph.
