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Tigers complete series sweep of Twins with wild win

Jul 19, 2007 - 11:01 PM MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- If Brandon Inge and the Detroit Tigers have anything to say about it, the Minnesota Twins won't be making another miraculous comeback in the American League Central Division.

Inge cranked an RBI double in the 10th inning to propel the Tigers to a 4-3 victory Thursday and a three-game series sweep of the rival Twins.

Detroit seemingly had the AL Central wrapped up last season before squandering a double-digit standings cushion and losing the division crown to Minnesota on the final day of the campaign.

But the defending league champion Tigers have been on a mission of late, winning 10 of their last 12 contests.

"It is big on our part," Inge said. "This is a tough team to beat, much less sweep in their own ballpark. We are leaving here with a pretty good feeling."

Thanks to Thursday's victory, Detroit (57-36) climbed 2 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Cleveland Indians (55-39) in the division standings.

Cleveland visits the Texas Rangers on Thursday night.

Coming off a four-game series sweep of the Oakland Athletics here, the Twins (49-46) dropped nine games behind the Tigers.

"Both teams played hard and we were fortunate in this series," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "When you get the right bounces once in awhile, you sweep a series. And when you don't, you get swept."

After stranding a baserunner in the ninth inning, the Tigers capitalized on their opportunity in the 10th against Twins closer Joe Nathan (2-2).

Timo Perez, who was recalled from Class AAA Toledo prior to the game, drew a leadoff walk against the hard-throwing Nathan and advanced to second on catcher Mike Rabelo's sacrifice.

That set the stage for Inge, who lofted Nathan's first pitch over the head of center fielder Jason Tyner to plate Perez and give the Tigers a 4-3 lead.

Inge had a similar situation in the eighth after Rabelo's sacrifice put Perez on second with one out, but he struck out on four pitches.

"When you have a guy in scoring position with the game in the line, that is what you dream about," Inge said.

Zach Miner (1-1) worked 1 1/3 scoreless relief frames to record his first win of the season and Todd Jones pitched around a one-out walk to notch his 26th save.

"We pitched good, and we hit enough," Jones said. "The hitters have done enough for us so we could show up one series and pitch good, and we did that."

Placido Polanco had a double and two singles while Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen and Sean Casey each added two hits for Detroit, which will not face Minnesota again until September 14.

"Things aren't going our way right now, it's disappointing," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We had a chance in every game. One big hit in each game, and we win three. It didn't happen."

Minnesota had a chance to snap the 3-3 tie in the eighth when Justin Morneau ripped a leadoff double off lefthander Bobby Seay and advanced to third on Mike Redmond's flyout to right field.

With Jason Kubel at the plate, Seay uncorked a wild pitch which bounced off the backstop and caromed back to Rabelo. Morneau initially broke for home but held up nearly two-thirds of the way down the baseline when Rabelo tossed the ball back to Seay.

As Morneau began retreating back to third, Seay lobbed a throw that struck the reigning AL MVP in the back and bounced toward the mound. Morneau turned around once again, this time attempting to reach the plate, but was ruled out for interference by third base umpire Gary Darling.

"He turned into it," Gardenhire said of Morneau. "Smart try. It works in hockey, but in baseball it's the right call there. Bad breaks there, you just have to live with them."

Trailing, 1-0, Detroit jumped to a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning. Rabelo led off with a triple against Minnesota starter Scott Baker and scored on Inge's bloop single.

After Curtis Granderson grounded into a forceout, Polanco ripped a go-ahead RBI double off the glove of third baseman Nick Punto and down the left-field line.

Gary Sheffield followed in similar fashion, lining a double off the glove of a diving Punto to plate Polanco and give the Tigers a 3-1 advantage.

However, Minnesota responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame to forge a 3-3 tie. Kubel led off with a homer to center field - his eighth of the season - and Punto lined a one-out single two batters later.

After Tyner singled to put runners at the corners, Luis Castillo beat out a potential inning-ending double play, allowing Kubel to score the tying run.

"Usually, it is the kiss of death when you score and let them come back and score," Leyland said. "You usually don't win that game a lot of times."

The Twins were swept for the third time this season, the first two coming against Cleveland.

"I don't think we are better, I don't think we are worse. I just think we are slightly behind those guys right now as a group," Minnesota center fielder Torii Hunter said. "One-run games, those are the ones that are hard to swallow."