DETROIT _ If the Twins will be playing deep into the postseason, surely they can expect to face starting pitchers that tie them up for most of the game.
That happened Saturday night against the last-place Tigers, when left-hander Matt Boyd gave up a fluke run to the first batter of the game, then nearly shut down the Twins from there.
But the Twins chased him by pushing across a run in the seventh inning, then scored eight runs in the eighth en route to a 10-4 victory.
The big blow was a three-run homer to Zack Granite, who entered the game as a pinch runner earlier in the inning. It was Granite's first major league home run.
The rally put Ervin Santana in position for his 16th victory, one behind the American League lead. Santana gave up hits to the Tigers' first four batters and the Twins quickly fell behind 2-1. The Twins had taken a lead on the game's very first batter when Brian Dozier bunted for a single, then rounded the bases for a Little League homer as third baseman Jeimer Candelario threw past first baseman Miguel Cabrera and into right field.
Cabrera ended up leaving the game because of lower back tightness. He was the first of three players to leave because of injury. Twins right fielder Max Kepler was pinch-hit for in the second inning as he was being evaluated for a left hip injury. His replacement, Ehire Adrianza, scored the Twins' second run when he doubled in the seventh inning off Boyd, then scored on Robbie Grossman's single. Those were only the Twins' third and fourth hits off Boyd, who in his last start had a no-hitter against the White Sox broken up with two out in the ninth inning.
The most devastating injury in the game came after Boyd was pulled. Alex Wilson came on to start the eighth inning against Joe Mauer, who lined a pitch off Wilson's right leg for a single. Wilson got up and tried to throw a pitch but couldn't put any weight on the leg. He had to be helped off the field and suffered a non-displaced fibula fracture.
From there, it was all downhill for the Tigers bullpen, which had been crushed by the Twins in the first two games of this series. Jorge Polanco grounded a two-strike pitch for a single off left-hander Daniel Stumpf, and Paul Molitor chose Granite to pinch run for Mauer. That moved paid off when Eddie Rosario lined a single to left that the speedy Granite scored from second to tie the score at 3.
Eduardo Escobar followed with a bloop hit to score Polanco with the go-ahead run, and that was it for Stumpf. Grossman then added a two-run single, and Granite eventually came up to deliver his three-run homer to make it an eight-run inning.
It marked the 17th time this season the Twins have scored 10 runs in a game.
