EditorsNote: rewords lede
Max Kepler's three hits included a game-tying homer in the eighth inning and a walk-off single in the 10th that gave the Minnesota Twins a 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.
Kepler drove in Eddie Rosario with the winning run from second with two outs on a blooper to shallow left off reliever Bryan Garcia (2-1). Rosario had tied the game leading off the inning with a single to drive in pinch runner Jake Cave and later stole second.
Byron Buxton and Mitch Garver also homered for Minnesota (34-22), which moved to within a half-game of the first-place Chicago White Sox (34-21) in the American League Central.
Taylor Rogers (2-4) picked up the win despite allowing an unearned run in the top of the 10th.
Daz Cameron had two doubles and scored a run and Willi Castro and Miguel Cabrera also had two hits for Detroit (22-31).
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first when Buxton hammered Tigers starter Tarik Skubal's third pitch 374 feet inside the left foul pole for his 13th home run of the season and eighth in the past 12 games.
Detroit tied it in the fourth when Victor Reyes got hit by a pitch leading off the inning, went to third on a single by Castro and scored on a single by Cabrera. The Tigers loaded the bases with no outs when Jeimer Candalerio walked, but reliever Cody Stashak got out of the jam with a rare 6-2-5 double-play grounder by Brandon Dixon followed by a flyout from Niko Goodrum.
The Twins regained the lead, 2-1, in the bottom half of the inning on Garver's second home run of the season, a 417-foot drive off the facing of the third deck in left.
The Tigers tied it in the sixth when reliever Trevor May, who had walked just four batters all season, walked the bases loaded. Tyler Duffey took over for May and appeared to get out of the jam with a comebacker by Austin Romine. However, first baseman Miguel Sano dropped Duffey's low throw for an error allowing Castro to score.
Detroit took its first lead in the seventh when Cameron led off with a double into the gap in right-center and scored one out late on Castro's single. Kepler tied it in the bottom of the eighth with his ninth home run of the season off reliever Buck Farmer.
The Tigers then took a 4-3 lead in the 10th on Candelario's one-out single, driving in Reyes, who began the inning at second and advanced to third on a line single to right by Cabrera.
--Field Level Media
