Jeimer Candelario homer in 10th inning lifts Detroit Tigers to 4-2 Wednesday win at Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — Jeimer Candelario hit the tiebreaking two-run homer in the 10th inning after Harold Castro went deep twice earlier, and the Detroit Tigers dodged another sweep in Minnesota by coming back to beat the Twins 4-2 on Wednesday.
Candelario clobbered a first-pitch fastball from Trevor Megill (0-1), just beyond the reach of Gilberto Celestino’s glove to drive in the automatic runner and give the Tigers their first lead of the series.
The Twins, who had their six-game winning streak stopped, loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half. Michael Fulmer struck out Carlos Correa before yielding to Andrew Chafin, who struck out Max Kepler and retired Gary Sa
Castro hit solo home runs in the sixth and eighth innings, after going deep only nine times in his first 799 major league at-bats. His first homer off Twins starter Dylan Bundy stopped a 16-inning scoreless streak for the Tigers, who have only 25 homers in 43 games for the fewest in baseball.
After a 54-minute delay to let the rain pass through, Bundy threw his first of 85 pitches and lasted until there were two outs in the sixth.
Trevor Larnach hit a two-run homer for the Twins in the fourth inning to spoil an otherwise-stellar fill-in start by Rony Garcia.
Myriad injuries in the rotation made this bullpen game necessary for the Tigers, but it also served as another showcase of their greatest strength. With the starting pitching depleted and the hitting badly lagging, the relievers entered the game with a collective 2.98 ERA for the second-best mark in baseball. Wily Peralta, Joe Jiménez, Gregory Soto and Alex Lange (1-1) kept the Twins off the board after Garcia.