DETROIT _ Slumping Twins All-Star Miguel Sano was sent to the minor leagues after Thursday's 3-1 loss in Detroit.
Sano, mired in a 5-for-37 June, will go to Class A Fort Myers to try to work on his hitting fundamentals.
"I'm not mad, I'm happy," Sano said about getting a chance to solve his slump in Florida. "They love me.
"I'm going to take pride of going down there and working hard so I can come back and be better."
Sano is going to Fort Myers, where the Twins have their spring training complex, so the team can be more involved in his workouts with hands-on supervision and instruction.
"We're going to get him down there, and give him an opportunity to get things back on track," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "We're going to listen to him, we're going to stay in touch, we'll be supportive because we know we need him in the long term. ... We don't feel right now that we're getting what we need to from him. He's going to have to go down there and get to work."
Said Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey: "We looked at it as, we're not just going to follow the traditional view, just go get at-bats at Triple-A. We wanted to take a step back and blank-canvas this ... We can do a lot of things there, a lot of staff there. We felt that was the most supportive environment."
The also Twins sent outfielder Jake Cave to Rochester, and will add two players to the roster before Friday's game in Cleveland, including first baseman Joe Mauer (disabled list because of concussion-like symptoms).
In 37 games this season, Sano is hitting .203 with seven home runs and 27 RBIs. The 2017 American League All-Star has 66 strikeouts in 148 at-bats.
As for the game against the Tigers, for the second straight day, Eddie Rosario and Eduardo Escobar put the Twins ahead from the start, but the offense did nothing from that point on. A day after wasting a brilliant start by Jose Berrios, the Twins on Thursday squandered some Lance Lynn excellence and fell to the Tigers, 3-1, at Comerica Park.
Lynn extended his streak to five straight quality starts, and this one may have been the best of the bunch _ for six innings. But after limiting the Tigers to nothing but ground balls (only three of which sneaked through to the outfield for harmless singles) and strikeouts (a season-high nine in all), Lynn suddenly became mistake-prone in the seventh. John Hicks led off with a long line drive to the center-field wall, his first career triple, and Niko Goodrum hit a fly ball deep enough to score him. But the big mistake was yet to come: After hitting Jose Iglesias with a pitch, Lynn convinced manager Paul Molitor during a mound conference to let him finish the inning.
He never made it. Lynn immediately fell behind JaCoby Jones 3-1, and had to come over the plate with a fastball. Jones was waiting for it, and blasted it 389 feet into the Twins' bullpen in left-center.
The home run was the first that Lynn had allowed in more than a month, but its timeliness was devastating to the Twins, who fell 5{ games out of first place as they head to Cleveland. They have not won a road series since May 7-8 in St. Louis.
If Lynn was great, Detroit right-hander Michael Fulmer was even better, once he got past the usual Rosario-Escobar first-inning fun. Rosario crushed a double off the right-field fence, and Escobar singled him home, allowing the Twins to play with the lead _ but never increase it _ for the second straight day. After that, Fulmer took charge, retiring 10 straight batters and eventually finishing seven strong innings.
Fulmer gave up three hits after the first inning, and no runs. Relievers Joe Jimenez and Shane Greene finished off the Twins, the latter earning his 17th save in 20 opportunities.
The Twins are trying to compete during some long slumps. Brian Dozier has not collected a hit in the past week, going 0 for his last 19.
Logan Morrison, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Thursday, is batting .147 (10-for-68) with two home runs since May 20.
