Tigers 13, Twins 1
DETROIT -- Miguel Cabrera triggered a three-run first inning with an RBI single and later added a pair of two-run homers and Anibal Sanchez checked Minnesota on five hits in eight innings Thursday to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 13-1 victory over the Twins.
Detroit ended a stretch of 28 games in six weeks against American League Central opponents with 18 wins, but it was the first time in five games the Tigers had scored more than two runs. They won three of the five.
Cabrera's first home run came after second baseman Ian Kinsler doubled to lead off the sixth inning and his second, his eighth homer of the season, came the next inning after consecutive triples by center fielder Anthony Gose and Kinsler.
Sanchez (3-4) was buoyed two batters into the game by a see-it-to-believe-it double play started with a backhand flip by shortstop Jose Iglesias on a grounder over second base.
Second baseman Brian Dozier had lined a leadoff single to left before catcher Kurt Suzuki hit a grounder up the middle that looked like a base hit. Iglesias gloved it on the run and backhanded the ball out of the glove to Kinsler, who barehanded it and threw to first in the same motion. Cabrera snared the one-bouncer to get Suzuki by more than a step.
Sanchez walked one and struck out nine before turning the game over to right-hander Al Alburquerque.
Gose grounded a single up the middle in the first to start Detroit's 20-hit attack, the first of his four hits. He advanced on a ground ball back to losing right-hander Mike Pelfrey (3-1) and scored on a line single to left center by Cabrera.
Designated hitter J.D. Martinez singled Cabrera to third and left fielder Yoenis Cespedes drove him home with a sacrifice fly to center. Right fielder Rajai Davis doubled in the third run of the inning, the first of his three hits.
Iglesias drove in an unearned run in the third with his ground ball to short glancing off Pelfery with one out and runners on first and third. Third baseman Nick Castellanos opened the fifth with his third home run of the season, a blow that glanced off the iron railing atop the fence in right center.
Tigers catcher Bryan Holaday doubled in a run in the sixth to make it 8-1 and his two-run homer in the eighth upped the lead to 13-1. He also had a three-hit game.
Pelfrey reached 95 pitches by the time he was taken out with two outs in the fifth. He gave up 10 hits with two walks and a strikeout.
The Twins lost for just the fourth time in 14 games.
NOTES: Detroit INF Andrew Romine was in the starting lineup posted by manager Brad Ausmus as the shortstop -- but was quickly removed when a pregame question about SS Jose Iglesias getting a day off made Ausmus realize he'd written down a name from his B lineup. ... Twins RF Torii Hunter did not start Thursday. "He's been out there a lot," manager Paul Molitor said. ... DH Victor Martinez, struggling as a left-handed batter, did not start Thursday and also won’t play this weekend in St. Louis, a National League park in which the designated hitter is not used. ... Molitor put Kennys Vargas, normally the designated hitter, in at first base so he could make Joe Mauer his DH for a day and give him a break from playing in the field.