Streaky Twins beat Tigers on Matt Wallner's slam
The streaky Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 5-2 Tuesday night, fueled by a five-run sixth inning that featured a 450-foot grand slam by rookie Matt Wallner.
The Twins have now won three straight games – they won Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia before Monday's off day – to continue a trend of very streaky play since returning from the All-Star break in mid-July.
Minnesota won 9 of 11 games immediately after the break and then lost five in a row. They then won 6 of 7 games, lost 4 straight and have now won 3 in a row.
At Target Field Tuesday night, the Twins were held to one hit over five innings before they erupted in the sixth inning. Jorge Polanco led off with a walk and moved to second on a single by Max Kepler. Royce Lewis ripped an RBI single to left to make it 2-1 and then Carlos Correa loaded the bases with an infield single.
Then came Wallner, blasting a 450-foot homer well into the upper deck in right-center field for a 5-2 lead.
Crank up the volume and just listen to the sound Matt Wallner’s swing made.pic.twitter.com/VyIgnjWhzD
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) August 16, 2023
The Tigers had a noteworthy performance from Miguel Cabrera, who hit his second homer of the season and the 509th of his career. He's now tied with Gary Sheffield for 26th all time.
Up next: Twins vs. Tigers, Wednesday at 12:10 p.m. CT.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.