MINNEAPOLIS _ The suddenly powerful Twins continued blasting home runs Saturday night, a development so contagious, even Joe Mauer is joining in. They recorded a barrage of home runs off Tigers pitching for the third consecutive day, each blast more prodigious than the one before it.
The Tigers can't say the same, managing only two clutch hits all night, and only six for the entire game, barely more than half of the Twins' total. But raw power isn't always decisive in baseball, and the Twins proved it with their 7-5 loss at Target Field, their rockets into the seats eclipsed by Detroit's willingness to watch and wait. And occasionally duck.
Mauer, Tyler Austin, Miguel Sano and Mitch Garver all homered, but only the last of them came with a runner on base. Detroit, meanwhile, fueled a pair of three-run rallies with free baserunners, accepting two walks and two hit batsmen before detonating the innings with well-timed extra-base hits. The combination ended the Twins' four-game winning streak, and seven-game winning streak at home.
Kohl Stewart finished with a no-decision in his second start, but it lasted only 2 2/3 innings, as the Twins right-hander walked four and threw only 31 of 65 pitches for strikes. It illustrated the minefield that a pitcher who doesn't rack up strikeouts must tiptoe through during each start.
"The margin of error is not as big" in the major leagues as in the minors, Twins manager Paul Molitor said before the game, in discussing Stewart's ground-ball-heavy approach. "I'd like to see a little better command of his secondary pitches to keep guys off his sinker."
Whether it was first-home-game nerves or just an off night, command eluded Stewart in his second meeting with the Tigers, forcing him to pitch out of trouble right from the start. Jaime Candelario walloped Stewart's second pitch of the night off the center field wall for a double, and though Stewart kept Candelario from scoring, he walked a batter, too.
Stewart walked another batter in the second, and then turned a one-out infield hit into a bases-loaded crisis by issuing back-to-back walks. A popup by Victor Martinez gave the former first-round pick an opportunity to escape again, but an errant fastball hit Mikie Mahtook and force home the Tigers' first run. Pitching coach Garvin Alston visited the mound to give Stewart a chance to calm himself, but his next pitch was his worst, and last: A thigh-high 95-mile fastball, right in the middle of the plate.
Ronny Rodriguez didn't turn it into a grand slam, but he didn't miss by much, driving the ball to right for a two-run double.
Tyler Duffey relieved Stewart and ended the rally, but before long, Duffey was in a jam of his own. The right-hander hit former teammate Niko Goodrum with a pitch to open the fifth inning, and Victor Martinez reached on a grounder that the Twins couldn't turn into an out. That gave Mahtook an opportunity, and so did Duffey's 2-2 pitch, a low curveball that Mahtook golfed into the left-field seats.
The Tigers added an unearned run in the eighth, on a Jorge Polanco throwing error that scored Grayson Griener, who reached base via ... yep, a walk.
The Twins' slugging approach couldn't bring them all the way back, even against a generous Tigers bullpen. Minnesota collected at least one hit in every inning until the ninth, but couldn't score without the long ball, going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
