MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – As a gift from third baseman Josh Donaldson, each of the Minnesota Twins now have dark blue jersey-style bathrobes with their name across the back.
Nelson Cruz even started draping his over the shoulders of each teammate who hit a homer. With the division race as tight as ever and a first-round home series on the line, the Twins couldn’t be more relaxed in their defense of the AL Central title.
“I can’t wait to lounge in it in the bubble. I’m going to be doing a lot of that from now on,” said Max Kepler, who hit the tying home run in the eighth inning and the game-winning single with two outs in the 10th to give the Twins a 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.
The Twins pulled to just a half-game behind the division-leading Chicago White Sox.
“With the scoreboard behind us, there’s a few glances in between the pitching changes, where you’re like, `All right. Let’s go. Keep this thing going,'” said Byron Buxton, who also homered along with Mitch Garver for the Twins.
Minnesota (34-22) has all four remaining games at home, where the Twins have the best record in baseball at 22-5. They wrap up the regular season by hosting Cincinnati this weekend.
The White Sox (34-21), who squandered a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the 10th inning and lost 5-3 at Cleveland, play twice more against the postseason-bound Indians before hosting a three-game weekend series against the crosstown first-place Cubs. The White Sox hold the tiebreaker over the Twins based on a better intradivision record. The teams split their 10-game season series.
If the Twins don’t retain their division title, they would still host one of the four best-of-three AL wild card series if they stay ahead of the New York Yankees (32-23).
After Jeimer Candelario’s RBI single in the 10th gave the Tigers the lead against closer Taylor Rogers (2-4), pinch-runner Jake Cave promptly scored from second base on Eddie Rosario’s soft single to center to begin the bottom of the inning facing Bryan Garcia (2-1). Then after Rosario stole second base, Kepler put another blooper in just the right place to give the Twins another dramatic win.
“Baseball is a game you can never give up on,” Kepler said. “You have to keep believing stuff can get done, and stuff like that will happen.”
Willi Castro’s RBI single off Tyler Duffey in the seventh gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead, after they tied the game in the sixth on an error by first baseman Miguel Sano. Duffey knocked down a bases-loaded comebacker and recovered in time to grab the ball, but his low throw was dropped by Sano as Castro scored.
Daz Cameron hit two doubles for Detroit, but as he tried to score in the fifth on a two-out single, his helmet came loose and blocked his view as he slowed a bit to try to push it out of his eyes. Rosario nailed him at the plate with a perfect throw from left field.
“It’s a great feeling when you help the pitchers,” Rosario said.
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