DETROIT _ Mitch Garver, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, C.J. Cron and Nelson Cruz have the Twins in the history books. Each Twin hit a home on Saturday _ with Garver going deep in the first and ninth inning.
And that ninth inning blast, off Tigers reliever Joe Jimenez, made the Twins the best home run hitting team of all-time.
They have swatted 268 homers in this Summer of Swat, and are on pace to break through the 300 barrier before the season is over. Yet it was not enough Saturday to break through against Detroit, as the six homers accounted for just seven runs in a 10-7 loss to the Tigers.
Seven runs weren't enough on a night Martin Perez was mauled by the Tigers at Comerica Park.
The left-hander left plenty of pitches in the hitting zone, Detroit pounced, the Twins ran out of time to recover.
Perez seemed to be gaining traction in recent outings, posting a 2.12 ERA over his previous three starts before Saturday. He was mixing his pitches better, using his changeup effectively and had not given up a single homer during that time.
Saturday's outing against the Tigers was different. He left pitches in the hitting zone, Detroit hitters got on a roll and the Twins had to dig out of a big hole early.
The Tigers pummeled Perez in the third inning as 11 men went to the plate against him. The hits kept coming, and Detroit took an 8-2 lead.
Garver led of the game with a homer. After Detroit tied the game in the bottom of the inning, Kepler blasted a homer off of Tigers left-hander Matt Boyd to give the Twins a 2-1 lead.
Perez got the first out of the third inning _ then the next eight Detroit batters reached base. They feasted on his fastball, crushed his cutter and even chomped on his changeup as they scored seven runs in the inning to take that 8-2 lead, the most runs the Twins have allowed in an inning all season.
There was a remarkable five-pitch sequence during the inning that went: RBI double by Miguel Cabrera, strike to Ronny Rodriguez, two-run homer by Rodriguez, single by Dawel Lugo then an RBI double by Brandon Dixon. That swinging spree led to four runs that allowed the Tigers to open the game up. Social media erupted, wondering why Perez was still in the game. The truth was that Perez was sliced and diced so quickly that it was hard to get a reliever warmed up in time.
It also didn't help that Ehire Adrianza, playing in right field, bungled two balls hit to him for errors. Not just in the same inning, but on each of Victor Reyes' at bats in the inning.
Even down six runs, the Twins tried to rally, as Polanco hit a two-run homer in the fifth and Cron hit his second opposite field home run in as many nights, getting the Twins within 8-5. It was milestone time, as Polanco blast was his 20th of the season, giving the Twins a major league record eight players with at least 20 homers in this season of long balls.
But the Twins were trailing, and they fell behind even more when reliever Cody Stashak gave up a two-run homer to Rodriguez in the sixth, allowing the Tigers to take a 10-5 lead. It was Rodriguez's second two-homer game against the Twins this season, the other coming on May 11 at Target Field. He has six homers against the Twins this season.
Cruz led off the eight with homer to get within 10-6, before Garver led off the ninth with a 402-foot shot to left. While Tigers staffers went to retrieve the ball, Jimenez struck out Miguel Sano to end the game with a man on first.
The Twins were 4-0 in games in which they hit at least six home runs, scoring at least 14 runs in each of them. They are now 4-1.
