Detroit Tigers vs Minnesota Twins Box Score on Jul 09, 2021

Max Kepler hit a two-run triple to highlight a four-run sixth inning and Kenta Maeda extended his scoreless inning streak to 11 as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 4-2 on Friday night in Minneapolis, Minn.

Maeda held the Tigers to just two singles and two walks over five innings while striking out seven. He left after throwing 84 pitches, 52 for strikes. Over his last two starts against Detroit and the Kansas City Royals, Maeda has pitched 11 shutout innings while allowing four hits -- all singles -- and three walks and striking out 17.

Jorge Alcala picked up the win (2-3), allowing no runs on two hits over 1 1/3 innings. Hansel Robles picked up his ninth save by getting the final five outs for the Twins.

Robbie Grossman homered for Detroit, which dropped to 3-11 in its last 14 games against Minnesota. Matt Manning (1-3), who didn't allow hit in the first 4 1/3 innings, suffered the loss, allowing two runs on two hits over five-plus innings.

Manning, who didn't allow a hit until Kepler singled to left with one out in the fifth, left after allowing a leadoff single to Luis Arraez and a walk to Josh Donaldson to open the sixth.

Left-hander Ian Krol, making his first major league appearance since 2018, took over and balked Arraez to third and Donaldson to second. Trevor Larnach then singled against the drawn-in infield to drive in Arraez, and Nelson Cruz followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in Donaldson and make it 2-0.

After Alex Kirilloff walked and Jorge Polanco flied out, Kepler hit a sinking liner to left that went under the glove of a diving Grossman and rolled to the wall for a triple, driving in Larnach and Kirilloff and increasing Minnesota's lead to 4-0.

Detroit cut it to 4-2 in the eighth on Grossman's 12th homer of the year, a 396-foot drive into the second deck in left off reliever Caleb Thielbar that drove in Akil Baddoo, who had singled.

--Field Level Media