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Two eighth-inning homers lift Tigers over Twins

Sep 7, 2008 - 12:50 AM By Brian Hall PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- If the Minnesota Twins were hoping a return home would help relieve their bullpen woes, the Detroit Tigers offered a bit of reality.

Magglio Ordonez had three hits, including a tie-breaking two-run homer in the eighth, as the Tigers rallied for a 6-4 victory over Minnesota on Saturday.

Curtis Granderson added a two-run homer and Miguel Cabrera a pair of RBI for Detroit, which avoided a third straight loss.

"These guys have put themselves in a position, and the White Sox have put themselves in a position," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of his division rivals. "But I don't want it ever to be said we didn't come up and play a full nine innings and play it hard. We did and I am proud of that today."

The loss is another devastating blow for Minnesota (78-64), which entered the day 1 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central Division. Chicago hosted Anaheim in an evening contest Saturday.

The Twins had won the opener of the home series after finishing a lengthy and disappointing road trip at 5-9, which included a three-game sweep at Toronto to end the trip. On the road trip, Minnesota suffered four walk-off losses and three blown saves by All-Star closer Joe Nathan. Six of the nine losses were attributed to the bullpen.

"Obviously, the way it turned out, it's bad," Twins reliever Matt Guerrier said. "But it's no better or worse that we're at home. It's a game that we should be able to go in there and keep the lead."

Early on, it appeared as though Minnesota would continue its home dominance, but the bullpen again failed to hold up.

Twins starter Scott Baker took a 4-2 lead into the eighth, but left after walking Ramon Santiago. Southpaw Dennys Reyes came in to face Granderson, who tied the game with his 18th home run - just his third of the season against a lefthanded pitcher. Guerrier (6-7) entered and gave up a single to Placido Polanco and Ordonez followed with his 17th homer, handing another loss to Guerrier and the bullpen.

"No matter what, you still have to go and finish this month off," Granderson said. "It depends on how you want to do it. Do you want to just turn it in, or continue to finish up strong and continue to show that this team has great ability to contend versus anybody in our division or any division? That is the way we are looking at it, try to finish up as best we can and finish up on a high note."

The late heroics made a winner of Clay Rapada (3-0), who pitched a scoreless 1 1/3 innings in relief of Justin Verlander. Kyle Farnsworth had a perfect eighth with two strikeouts.

Minnesota loaded the bases in the ninth against Fernando Rodney, who struck out Joe Mauer and got Justin Morneau to line out in recording his ninth save in 13 chances. Entering the game-ending at-bat, Morneau was 6-for-10 with two home runs against Rodney.

"With Rodney, I don't care who is up there, I want to see him make his pitches," Tigers catcher Brandon Inge said. "If he makes his pitches, it doesn't matter who is up."

Baker tossed 7 1/3 innings, allowing three runs and four hits while striking out five and walking four.

Verlander struggled through 5 2/3 innings, giving up four runs and eight hits. The righthander struck out four and walked four, throwing just 65 of 114 pitches for strikes.

"I felt like I made some progress on some of the things I am working on," Verlander said. "I think I was kind of in-and-out. It's not easy to make adjustments mid-season like that. I felt like I was able to take some positive steps forward."

Tiger pitchers have surrendered 13 walks in the first two games of the series.

Carlos Gomez had a two-run double for Minnesota. Morneau and Jason Kubel each added a hit and RBI.

"It's just got to get done," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Those guys have got to make pitches and get through it, and it didn't happen today."