Justin Morneau shines as Minnesota Twins defeat Detroit Tigers 6-5 – MLB Update
Justin Morneau hit a two-run single in the ninth coupled with a homer of Jim Thome on Wednesday, August 17 to help the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 6-5 at Comerica Park.
Facing the likes of Valverde, Morneau’s performance was overwhelming. "It is big to win this series," said Morneau, who got his hit off Tigers’ closer Jose Vervalde. "He's been lights out all year -- 35 for 35 in save situations -- so to score runs off him
is big.”
He spelled out what their strategy was in scoring the winning run for the Twins. "We had the bases loaded with nobody out, and they had a chance to get out of it," Morneau said. "I just wanted to get a pitch to hit, and I got into a fastball count."
The Minnesota Twins’ offence seemed a bit cornered from the first inning when Brad Penny came on the mound. His was a scoreless first inning that he pitched followed by Carl Pavano’s inning against the Detroit Tigers.
Jim Thome had the first homer of the game in the second inning as Brad Penny could not skilfully execute his pitch. That gave a lead to the Twins that they defended by the strong pitches of Carl Pavano.
Entering into the third, the Tigers had their first run as Delmon Young hit a sacrifice fly to level the score. Brad Penny then tossed some strong innings to keep the Twins’ hitters at bay while Pavano fell victim to a hit by Peralta in the sixth.
Jhonny Peralta had a homer to score the tiebreaking run for the Tigers something that was soon compensated by a two-run homer of Reni Tosoni in the seventh inning, giving the Minnesota Twins 3-2 lead by the end of seventh.
Miguel Cabrera had a single in the bottom of seventh against Carl Pavano that levelled the score once again. But Jim Thome had a single in the eighth with Duane Below on the mound, giving a 4-3 edge to the Twins.
The game remained exciting as Wilson Betemit was quick to have another single in the eighth for the Tigers, levelling the score once again. However, Justin Morneau’s two-run single in the ninth changed the outlook of the game with Twins standing at 6-4.
Joe Nathan came as a closer and threw some of the best pitches. Apart from Miguel Cabrera who had a single to centre, Nathan did not allow any other hitter to open up the bat as he wrapped up the game with 6-5 victory for the Minnesota Twins.
The Twins put in a tremendous effort as they took the much needed victory against the Tigers.
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