Kenta Maeda throws 5 scoreless inning in return to lead Twins past Tigers 4-1
Kenta Maeda pitched five scoreless innings in his return from the injured list and the Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 4-1 on Friday night.
Royce Lewis and Max Kepler homered for the Twins, who had two players and manager Rocco Baldelli ejected by home plate umpire Lance Barrett.
Maeda (1-4), who strained his triceps against the New York Yankees on April 26, allowed three hits, struck out eight and walked two. Jhoan Duran pitched the ninth for his 10th save in 12 tries. The Twins struck out 16 overall.
Joey Wentz (1-8) gave up four runs — three earned — and five hits with four walks in five-plus innings.
Minnesota took a 3-0 lead with a pair of second-inning homers. Lewis led off with a long drive over the Tigers bullpen in left field. After a one-out walk to Willi Castro, Kepler homered over the shortened fence in right-centerfield.
Baldelli was ejected by Barrett later in the inning, apparently over an uncalled balk.
Minnesota loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth on a double, a walk and an error. Brendan White replaced Wentz, and his wild pitch allowed Kyle Farmer to score Minnesota's fourth run. After a groundout, Michael A. Taylor took a called third strike and was later ejected along with assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon.
Matt Vierling made it 4-1 with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. That brought up Miguel Cabrera with the bases loaded, but he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
ROSTER MOVE
The Twins optioned RHP Oliver Ortega to Triple-A St. Paul to make room for Maeda.
ODD SLUMP
At the end of the 2021 season, Byron Buxton was hitting .302 against the Tigers with nine homers in 169 at-bats. He is hitting .073 with no extra-base hits in 55 at-bats since. He almost broke the slump in the ninth inning, but Andy Ibañez reached over the left-field fence to rob him of a home run.
UP NEXT
The teams play the second game of the weekend series Saturday night with Detroit rookie RHP Reese Olson (0-2, 5.59) scheduled to face RHP Pablo Lopez (3-4, 4.40).