DETROIT — The Tigers needed to flip the script any way they could after being swept in a four-game series in Minnesota before the All-Star break.
A skinny 1-0 win in a seven-inning game would be just fine.
Robbie Grossman led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run and a quartet of Tigers' pitchers made it hold up in the first of two games Saturday at Comerica Park.
Right-hander Jose Urena started and for the second start in a row, albeit 10 days apart, he pitched three scoreless innings. It would be a serious boost for the Tigers rotation if Urena could get back to the form he showed through his first seven starts.
Better hold off on that thought. Urena had to come out of the game at that point with tightness in his right groin.
Urena, who back on July 6 ended up allowing five runs after the third inning, was razor sharp while he was in there. He allowed just two infield singles and needed 42 pitches to get through the three innings.
The bullpen took it from there.
Left-hander Daniel Norris followed with six straight outs, four of the six hitters he dispatched hit from the left side.
Right-hander Kyle Funkhouser struck out the side in the sixth, punching out Andrelton Simmons, Luis Arraez and Josh Donaldson.
That left the seventh, and the heart of the Twins order, to All-Star lefty Gregory Soto. Done. He put the Twins down in order for his eighth save of the season
Twins rookie lefty Charlie Barnes was making his major league debut and Grossman gave him his welcome to the big leagues moment, leading off the bottom of the first with a line drive home run into the visitor’s bullpen in left center.
The Tigers did very little else against him, though they had him in some trouble in the fifth. Jake Rogers led off with a double and Derek Hill walked. Grossman, though, hit into a very unusual double-play.
His short-hop grounder was fielded by shortstop Simmons, who flipped to second for the force on Hill. Rogers had to hold up because it looked like it might've been a line out and he was then caught in a rundown between second and third.
That was the end of the line for Barnes. He gave way to former Tiger Beau Burrows, whom the Twins signed after the Tigers designated him for assignment on June 13. Burrows gave up a single to Jonathan Schoop but got Eric Haase to pop out to end the inning.
Burrows, who in his last outing with the Tigers on June 12 got ill and threw up behind the mound, had his contract purchased from Triple-A before the game. He pitched a scoreless sixth, too.
