DETROIT (AP) — Byron Buxton homered and scored twice to help the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 4-1 on Friday night for their third straight victory.
David Festa (2-2) pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter. Jhoan Durán pitched the ninth for his 12th save.
Brooks Lee drove in a pair of runs for the Twins.
Sawyer Gipson-Long (0-1) took the loss, allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings.
The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Matt Wallner and Lee, then made it 2-0 an inning later on Buxton’s long homer to left.
The Twins made it 3-0 in the sixth. Reliever Brant Hurter replaced Gipson-Long with one out and a runner on first. After a wild pitch, Hurter walked Ty France before Lee hit an RBI single. Hurter then hit former Tiger Kody Clemens to load the bases, but Carlos Hernández replaced Hurter and got out of the inning when Harrison Bader struck out and Christian Vazquez grounded out.
Buxton led off the seventh with a walk, stole second, took third on Trevor Larnach’s groundout and scored on Willi Castro’s squeeze bunt.
The Tigers had two runners on in the seventh, but Dillon Dingler grounded into a force at third and Parker Meadows popped out, but they finally scored when Colt Keith tripled in the eighth and scored on Gleyber Torres’ single.
Zach McKinstry singled to put runners on the corners, but Griffin Jax struck out Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson to end the inning.
Key moment
The Tigers had a chance to rally after Torres got their second hit with two out in the sixth. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli replaced Festa with Danny Coulombe and Tigers manager A.J. Hinch countered with pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones. Baldelli won the duel, as Jones grounded to Lee at third for a force at second.
Lee had prevented a bigger rally earlier in the inning, going behind the bag to field a Javier Báez grounder and make the play at first.
Key stat
The Tigers came into the game with a 21-5 record in series-opening games this season, including 12-1 at home.
Up next
Detroit RHP Casey Mize (7-2, 2.88) was set to face RHP Bailey Ober (4-5, 4.90) on Saturday.
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