A late burst of rain Friday, five minutes before the scheduled first pitch at Target Field, forced the Twins to wait through a 26-minute delay before they took the field.
It took only 18 more minutes before the game was essentially decided.
Twins second baseman Luke Keaschall botched a potential double play grounder, the ball skipping off his glove, and the Detroit Tigers responded with three straight two-out hits off starting pitcher Pierson Ohl in a five-run first inning. The Twins never recovered in a 7-0 loss, their fourth defeat in their last five games.
“We gave them extra outs,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And they took advantage of it.”
If a five-run deficit before stepping into the batter’s box wasn’t enough punishment, the Twins produced only two hits. It was the third time in the last five days that they had three or fewer hits in a game.
Twins starting pitcher Pierson Ohl (62) pitches in the first inning against the Tigers on Friday. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Ohl, facing the Tigers lineup for the second time in the last nine days, gave up eight hits and seven runs (three earned) while recording seven outs. He gave up two singles on his first six pitches before inducing a weak ground ball against Kerry Carpenter.
Instead of trading a run for two outs, Keaschall’s costly error breathed life into the Tigers’ offense. Ohl retired two of the next three batters, sandwiched around a 12-pitch walk to Spencer Torkelson, but Dillon Dingler blooped a two-out, two-run single over Keaschall’s head into center field.
Zach McKinstry lined an RBI single to right field, just over a leaping Keaschall, and Javier Báez shot a ground ball that deflected off the third-base bag for an RBI double. The 34-pitch inning could’ve been worse, too, but McKinstry was thrown out at the plate attempting to score from first base.