Story by
Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Bats, bullpen lead Twins to win over Tigers
- Story byPioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
- Bats, bullpen lead Twins to win over Tigers
As he came out of the bullpen, inheriting a situation with a pair of runners on base and a two-run lead, Cody Laweryson admits he had a "little bit of extra juices flowing."
Thrust into a high-leverage situation, Laweryson, who had just 11 innings of major league experience before Monday night, was up to the task. Laweryson only needed six pitches to escape, striking out Matt Vierling and getting Jahmai Jones to pop up to protect the Twins ' lead.
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After the Twins tacked on another pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth, Laweryson came back out for a 1-2-3 ninth inning, picking up his first career save in the Twins' 7-3 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday night.
"Sometimes, like we've talked about, there's going to be different opportunities depending on who's up and who's down," manager Derek Shelton said. "Cody did a really nice job."
And so did many of his teammates on a night where the Twins needed a little bit of something from everyone to beat Detroit (4-6). Laweryson's effort was part of four scoreless innings from the bullpen, which was plunged into action after five innings from starter Joe Ryan .
Ryan threw three perfect innings to begin his night before running into some trouble in the fourth inning, an inning that began with an error by shortstop Brooks Lee . The all-star starter gave up three runs as part of a 39-pitch inning, giving back the lead his teammates had built in the last inning.
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But he was able to stop the damage there and skirted around trouble in the fifth inning, giving up two earned runs and striking out seven in his outing.
"That's what a top-end starting pitcher does," Shelton said. "He comes back and settles down. And then he had to settle down in the heart of the order, go 2-3-4. I thought it was important. I was impressed with how he rebounded."
Ryan earned his first win of the season thanks to a much-improved offensive effort on Monday out of an offense that had collected just three hits in each of its past two games.
Shelton shook up the lineup before Monday's game and the Twins (4-6) got some immediate results. Byron Buxton , leading off for the first time this season, snapped a 0 for 20 streak in the third inning, igniting a three-run rally with a double to begin the frame.
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"Buck is going to hit," Shelton said. "And I told Buck this actually at some point before the game. I have a lot of worries in my life. Byron Buxton hitting is not one of them. And he's going to. It's just good to see that throughout the lineup. I thought we did a good job tonight."
Trevor Larnach , moved up to the two hole, collected a pair of hits and scored two runs and Luke Keaschall hit a big home run in the fourth inning to break a 3-3 tie.
Victor Caratini , whose two-run single in the first inning gave the Twins some breathing room, hit a sacrifice fly earlier in the game and both Matt Wallner and Royce Lewis had RBI knocks for the Twins in the win.
"It's nice when you can put up some runs for the pitchers and let them do their job," Keaschall said. "Cody did great. Joe did great. It was nice to see Buck rip that one down the line and everybody get some hits in there and some walks."
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