Twins 3, Tigers 2: Clemens' Sixth-Inning Blast Settles a Quiet Night in Detroit
Kody Clemens' two-run homer flipped a one-run game at Comerica Park, and Yoendrys Gómez slammed the door for his 22nd save of the season.
In a season where neither club is going anywhere in October, Tuesday's 3-2 Twins win at Comerica Park was still a tidy piece of baseball — a two-and-a-half-hour game decided by two swings and closed out by a diving catch.
How it unfolded
Minnesota struck first when Josh Bell lifted a sacrifice fly in the opening inning, and that 1-0 lead held for four innings of quiet. Detroit answered in the fifth, when Kevin McGonigle hit a two-run homer that put the Tigers up 2-1 in front of a crowd of 22,874.
The lead lasted an inning. Kody Clemens answered in the sixth with a two-run shot of his own off Drew Anderson, restoring Minnesota's advantage at 3-2 — and that was the game's final scoring line. Both teams managed just five hits apiece, according to Baseball-Reference's box score.
The finish
Dean Kremer earned the win to move to 3-5, while Anderson fell to 4-6. The ninth belonged to Yoendrys Gómez, who picked up his 22nd save — remarkably, 22 of his 23 career saves have come this season, per MLB.com's game story. The final out came with help from Luke Keaschall, whose sliding grab sealed it.
What it means
Not much for the standings — and that's the story. The Twins moved to 69-76 and the Tigers dropped to 66-79, both buried in an AL Central that the White Sox lead with a modest 75-70 record. What September offers teams like these is auditions: McGonigle's power is a reason to watch Detroit's final three weeks, and Gómez has turned a lost Minnesota season into a closer's résumé.
The two sides are seeing plenty of each other in this stretch — Detroit took an 11-6 decision over Minnesota just six days earlier — so the season-series bragging rights, at least, are still live.