Twins' ninth-inning rally falls short 8-7 loss to Tigers

Polanco and Kepler hit back-to-back homers in the ninth
Twins' ninth-inning rally falls short 8-7 loss to Tigers
Twins' ninth-inning rally falls short 8-7 loss to Tigers /

Spencer Torkelson homered twice and Riley Greene finished a double shy of the cycle as the Detroit Tigers took down the Minnesota Twins 8-7 Tuesday afternoon at Target Field. 

Minnesota jumped on the board early thanks to Royce Lewis's RBI double in the first inning. Eddy Julien's two-run single followed by a sacrifice fly from Jorge Polanco had the Twins ahead 4-0 after two innings. 

Detroit roared back with solo homers from Torkelson and Greene in the third and went ahead 7-4 with a four-run seventh inning highlighted by back-to-back homers from Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter. 

Griffin Jax was charged with all four runs in the seventh. He allowed the four runs on three hits and a walk while striking out two in a full inning of work. Jax had allowed just four runs in his previous 31 appearances.

Greene added fourth RBI in the top of the ninth with a sac-fly to deep center to stretch the Tigers lead to four.

Polanco answered in the bottom of the ninth with a two-run home run to cut the Tigers lead in half with no outs. Max Kepler homered to right three pitches later to draw the Twins within one. Matt Wallner flew out to deep left followed up by Donovan Solano hitting into a game-ending double play to end the Twins comeback attempt.

Up next: Twins vs. Pirates, Friday at 7:10 p.m. 


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