• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Tigers tally 12 hits, top Twins

May 26, 2012 - 11:18 PM Minneapolis, MN (Sports Network) - Andy Dirks hit two doubles, drove in two and scored two as the Detroit Tigers took a 6-3 win over the Minnesota Twins in a rainy second game of a three-game series.

Prince Fielder went 4-for-4 with an RBI while Miguel Cabrera drove in two and scored once for the Tigers, who have taken the first two games of this set after getting swept by Cleveland.

Max Scherzer (4-3) gave up three runs on six hits with nine strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings to grab the win.

"It was an interesting game because things got a little hairy," said Detroit manager Jim Leyland. "The rain delay, that was a tough one because Scherzer was throwing pretty good. But the bullpen did a good job of picking things up from there."

Denard Span and Justin Morneau each hit a solo home run for the Twins, who have dropped four straight. Carl Pavano (2-4) was touched for all six runs on 10 hits in just 4 1/3 innings to suffer the loss.

"We were missing a lot of pitches out there today," said Minnesota designated hitter Joe Mauer about the team striking out 16 times. "The rain delays didn't help us much there."

Detroit scored two runs in the first as Dirks doubled, Cabrera followed with an RBI double and then came home on a single from Fielder.

Minnesota got one back in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring double play off the bat of Mauer and tied the game in the second when Morneau led off the frame with his ninth homer of the year.

The Tigers, though, plated four runs in the fifth. Alex Avila and Ramon Santiago hit consecutive one-out singles and Quintin Berry followed with a basehit to score Avila. Dirks then doubled home both baserunners and Cabrera followed with an RBI single for a 6-2 lead.

Fielder then singled to again put runners on the corners, but Brian Duensing came on the mound and got Delmon Young to swing at the first pitch, which resulted in a 6-4-3 double play to escape the jam.

Span hit his first home run of the season in the sixth to get the Twins within three and back-to-back singles from Ben Revere and Mauer put the tying run at the plate.

The game then went into a rain delay, but after play started back up, Octavio Dotel struck out Josh Willingham and got Morneau to foul out and end the frame.

Dotel then struck out the side in the seventh while Joaquin Benoit tossed a scoreless eighth.

Jose Valverde worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his eighth save of the season and 250th of his career.

Game Notes

There was a rain delay of about 20 minutes to start the game then another of roughly 40 minutes in the sixth...Span's last home run came on May 23rd of last year...Scherzer is 2-1 in seven starts against the Twins...Pavano fell to 5-5 in 13 starts against the Tigers...Detroit will go for the sweep on Sunday with Rick Porcello on the mound while P.J. Walters will pitch for Minnesota.