Twins extend win streak to 3; Maeda sharp, Kepler and Lewis stay hot
Kenta Maeda's return from the injured list was stellar as the veteran right-hander struck out eight over five shutout innings to fuel the Minnesota Twins to a 4-1 victory over the Tigers in Detroit Friday night.
Maeda, making his first start since April 26, showed no signs of a tired arm or muscle strain that slowed his start to the season. He allowed just three hits and walked two before giving way to a Minnesota bullpen that allowed just one run over the final four innings.
Offensive firepower came from Royce Lewis, who ripped his fourth homer of the season to put Minnesota ahead 1-0 in the second inning. Three batters later, Max Kepler hit a two-run homer to give Minnesota. 3-0 cushion.
Kepler has homered in three of the last four games and has gone 6-of-15 with five RBIs. He had gone 7-for-54 in his previous 19 games.
Lewis has been a huge boost to Minnesota's offense since returning from the 60-day injured list followed ACL surgery on May 29. In 13 games, the former No. 1 overall pick is slashing .315/.333/.507 with four home runs, four doubles and six RBIs.
At 39-38, the Twins lead the AL Central by two games over the Cleveland Guardians, who lost to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night.
Note: Byron Buxton went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts but he narrowly missed a home run in the ninth inning. His deep drive to left looked like it was clear the wall but Detroit left fielder Andy Ibanez made a leaping catch to rob the potential homer. Like Kepler, Buxton has three homers in his past four games.
Up next: Twins at Tigers, Saturday at 6:15 p.m. on FOX.
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.