Gleyber Torres drove in the winning run in the 11th inning and Riley Greene hit a two-run homer Thursday night to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 4-3 victory over the host Minnesota Twins.
Torres’ sacrifice fly to right field allowed Colt Keith to score from third base. Keith had earlier advanced from second when Twins reliever Erasmo Ramirez (0-1) threw a wild pitch.
Detroit reliever Rafael Montero (1-1), obtained from Atlanta at the trade deadline, retired all three Minnesota batters in the 11th for the win.
The Tigers (71-52) have won three of their last four games and improved their record to a Major League Baseball best 19-8 in one-run games.
Minnesota (57-64) opened the scoring in the third inning. Edouard Julien gave the Twins a 1-0 lead when he blasted his third home run of the season to right field. Ryan Jeffers then grounded out, allowing Austin Martin to score from third and raise the margin to 2-0. Luke Keaschall’s single to left field one batter later pushed home Byron Buxton from second.
The Tigers pulled within 3-2 in the fourth inning when Greene belted his 28th homer of the year to right field, driving in Kerry Carpenter from second base.
Keith tied it at 3-3 in the sixth inning with his single to center field that scored Javier Baez from second. The Tigers had a chance to take the lead with two runners on but reliever Kody Funderburk replaced starter Bailey Ober and retired two of the next three batters to end the threat.
Ober struck out four while allowing three runs over 5 1/3 innings.
The Twins had a chance to win the game in the 10th. Mickey Gasper’s sacrifice bunt allowed Alan Roden to move to third base. Roden attempted to score on Austin Martin’s fielder’s choice but Detroit’s Spencer Torkelson threw to catcher Dillon Dingler who tagged Roden on the left hand.
Detroit starter Tarik Skubal, who had struck out at least 10 batters in each of his last three road games, allowed three runs on six hits and had only three strikeouts. That was his lowest strikeout total since knocking out only two against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the season-opener on March 27.
Skubal finished off his outing by retiring 13 of the last 14 batters that he faced.
Tigers edge Twins in 11 on Gleyber Torres’ game-winning sac fly
