Gerald Laird’s 13th inning homer guides the Tigers to victory over Twins
The game between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins was an epic encounter. Though the series was lost by the visiting side, the home Minneapolis side had a chance to sweep the game sets with just one more victory. However that wasn’t to be the case in the encounter.
Twins pitcher, Scott Baker was hit miserably in his 2 innings of play. The player conceded 3 hits, 2 runs and 2 balls in his 46 pitches. Compared to him, Justin Verlander from the Tigers pitched more but conceded more too. The ball thrower walked off allowing 10 hits, 6 runs and 1 walk. Overall, pitching was bad and last night’s encounter gave the fans a lot of runs to muse over.
The Tigers started their batting session in the top 1st and it was them who got on the scoring sheet first when Brennan Boesch grounded into fielder’s choice to second, and released Austin Jackson from the third base. The runner ran past the last base and got the team’s first run of the match and team. Much more was to come as Don Kelly made short work of Scott Baker with a 393-feet homer to the right in the top of the 2nd. The Twins were now 2 runs behind and they needed a quick double to bring them back to level. The bottom 2nd provided the chance, which the Minnesota side availed, when Jose Morales singled to the centre and allowed Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young to score two runs on the board.
The match was now level and the Twins stepped on the gear in the bottom 4th with Danny Valencia, who ran clear off J. J. Hardy’s sacrifice, fly hit to the centre. Detroit responded in the top 5th with Jackson, who scored off Miguel Cabrera’s, grounder out to shortstop. The back and forth conflict then took a new path in the bottom 5th when Minnesota starred a frenzy innings. The show began with Joe Mauer, who scored on error by second baseman, Will Rhymes. Valencia then hit a sacrifice fly to the right, to get Cuddyer through for the 6th run. Young was the last to score in the innings when Jason Repko dragged a single to the right.
The Twins were 6 – 3 up and they added another run in the bottom 7th when Cuddyer scored again, off Valencia’s single to the left centre. The lead had been stretched to 4 runs but the Tigers were hungry and they made their efforts count in the top 8th. Johnny Peralta banged a 418-feet homer to the centre. Ryan Raburn then followed the act with a 388-feet homer to the left. It wasn’t long till the side were levelled as Rhymes single drive to the centre got Alex Avila and Jackson through for two runs.
The Twins however, were still high on energy and they scored their 8th run in the bottom 8th through Repko, who ran the last base off Alexi Casilla’s single to the centre. The Minnesota side were in the lead and they needed the pitchers to throw well in the top 9th. However, that wasn’t going to happen as Casper Wells blasted a 355-feet homer to the right. The game was squared 8 – 8 and the fixture went into an extra innings.
Tigers struck luck in the top 11th and Brandon Inge was the man to do the damage to the Twins as he cleared the checkpoint off Raburn’s single to the left. Minnesota was however, up to the challenge and made the Detroit side pay in the bottom 11th with Denard Span, who ran to the dugout off Young’s grounder into fielder’s choice.
The sides were levelled again but it wasn’t till the top 13th that the winner was decided. Much to the displeasure of the fans in the Target Field ballpark, the victory shot came from a Tigers’ hitter. Gerald Laird made his introduction to the score board with a stunning drawn back smash which converted a decent pitch to a 398-feet homer to the left centre.
That’s how the game ended. The Tigers won the bout 10 – 9 and left with a safe series loss instead of a clean sweep.
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