Casey Mize, Tigers roughed up by Twins in challenging night
· Yahoo Sports
Minneapolis – It was 37 degrees at game time and, with the wind, it felt like 30. By the fifth inning, it was 30 degrees and felt like 23.
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“I told the guys this is going to be the toughest environment to play in mentally,” manager AJ Hinch said before the game. “The conditions are colder than they’re going to be this year. There’s not going to be a ton of energy in the ballpark. When it’s like this you’ve got to create your own.
“But it’s our reality. We need to play in it. They’re going to play in it. Keep your focus on the competition and not the elements. It’s a challenge.”
Target Field was sparsely populated, to be sure. The game had the feel of a late September game between two teams already out of the playoff race. It was marred by three errors (two by the Twins) and 14 walks (seven per side).
But it was the Twins who found enough juice to win the game, beating the Tigers 7-3 in the first of a four-game series.
A two-out, two-run homer by Luke Keaschall off Casey Mize broke a 3-3 tie in the fourth inning. The Twins produced four two-out, run-scoring hits in the game, two in a three-run third.
The Tigers, meanwhile, left runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth innings.
They did answer the Twins’ three-run third with three in the top of the fourth. Colt Keith stayed hot, ripped an RBI double off starter Joe Ryan and Zach McKinstry produced a two-run single.
They still had runners at the corners with one out but Ryan struck out Matt Vierling and Parker Meadows to end the threat.
Kevin McGonigle double with one out in the fifth and was stranded. Vierling doubled with two outs in the sixth and Jahmai Jones, pinch-hitting for Meadows against left-handed reliever Anthony Banda, struck out.
The Tigers’ last scoring chance came in the eighth after left-handed reliever Kody Funderburk walked three straight hitters to start the inning. But the inning broke down thanks in part to an odd bounce on a wild pitch.
With Riley Greene at second and Spencer Torkleson at first, Funderburk threw a pitch over McKinstry’s head. The ball caromed off the back wall right back to catcher Victor Caratini.
Greene was able to read the carom and scamper back to second. Torkelson, however, did not. He was caught and eventually tagged out in a rundown between first and second.
McKinstry walked by right-handed reliever Cody Laweryson struck out Matt Vierling and retired Jahmai Jones on a pop up to second.
The Tigers (4-6) ended up 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position, leaving eight runners on base.
Tigers' pitchers walked three straight hitters with one out in the top of the eighth. Reliever Drew Anderson, who had pitched three solid innings, walked the first one, Brant Hurter walked the next two.
Unlike the Tigers, the Twins cashed it in, a two-out, two-run single by Caratini, who had three hits and three RBI.
Mize escaped a messy second inning, but it took him 29 pitches to do it and there seemed to be residual effects from that.
A walk and a dropped fly ball by Vierling put runners at second and third with no outs. Mize struck out Matt Wallner. After walking Royce Lewis to load the bases, Mize struck out James Outman and got Brooks Lee to fly to left.
But instead of giving him momentum, surviving that long inning seemed to take something out of Mize because the bases were loaded again three batters into the third.
Again, it looked like Mize might wriggle out. He got Josh Bell to pop out and Caratini hit a line-drive sacrifice fly to center. Getting out of the inning with only one run would’ve been a win.
Instead, Wallner and Lewis delivered RBI singles.
Mize got the first two outs quickly in the fifth, but Trevor Larnach singled and Keaschall launched a 2-1 sinker that stayed on the inner third of the plate, right in his wheelhouse.
Both teams had itchy fingers when it came to using the ABS challenge system. The Twins used up both of theirs by the third inning. The Tigers were out in the fifth.
@cmccosky
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Casey Mize, Detroit Tigers roughed up by Twins in challenging night