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Untapped power puts big charge into Twins

On a weekend that brought several of professional sports' heavy hitters to Motown, the Twins' Mike Lamb made the first impression -- with a triple and a drought-breaking homer.

By JOE CHRISTENSEN, Star Tribune

Last update: May 24, 2008 - 12:21 AM

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TWINS 9, DETROIT 4

Up next: 6 p.m. today at Detroit • Comerica Park • TV: FSN (1500-AM)

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DETROIT - The Twins are staying at the same hotel as the Boston Celtics this weekend, though Mike Lamb should be more accessible for autographs than Kevin Garnett.

KG faces the Pistons tonight in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Lamb might get mistaken for a Pittsburgh Penguin, with that team also in town to face the Red Wings tonight in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Knowing his sense of humor, Lamb would probably tell the fans he's too busy chasing home run records.

He finally connected for his first homer as a Twin on Friday, as they defeated the Tigers 9-4 at Comerica Park.

"Hitting homers is always fun," Lamb said. "It's nice. It pays the bills. Nobody gets paid for hitting 200 singles a year; they get paid for hitting home runs."

The 69th homer of Lamb's career didn't seem that significant at the time. His sixth-inning drive off Armando Galarraga made it 5-0.

The Twins were cruising behind Kevin Slowey but ran into trouble when they turned to the bullpen.

Detroit stormed back in the seventh inning against Dennys Reyes and Jesse Crain, trimming the lead to 5-4.

No worries.

The Twins sent Lamb up to start the eighth, and the extra-base machine drilled a triple, sparking another three-run inning.

Lamb entered the night batting .222 with six extra-base hits, all of them doubles. He finished 2-for-3 with two walks and four runs scored.

That helped Slowey (1-4) earn his first win since Sept. 23. Slowey held the Tigers to four hits in six scoreless innings.

The Tigers had just scored 30 runs in a three-game sweep of Seattle.

Last month, in blowing two late-inning leads here, the Twins learned just how dangerous the Tigers are, even when they appear to be struggling.

Sure enough, Marcus Thames trimmed the lead to 5-3 with an RBI double in the eighth. But then the Twins caught a big break.

Thames overslid second base, allowing Alexi Casilla to tag him on the way to third.

Casilla dropped the ball as he made the tag, but Thames kept running past third base, toward the dugout. So Casilla tagged him again, just to be sure.

"I'm just glad [Thames] kept running," manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Two batters later, Gary Sheffield homered. It was 5-4. Had Thames stayed on second, he would have been the tying run.

Hey, Lamb can only do so much. When he pulled Galarraga's first pitch of the sixth just over the right-field wall, it was his first homer since Aug. 2, 2007.

This one barely cleared the wall and ricochetted back onto the field. First base umpire Marvin Hudson signaled home run, and as he ran, Lamb started pointing at Hudson, just to make sure everyone could believe what they'd seen.

"I hope nobody misconstrued that as celebrating too much," Lamb said. "It's really not me."

Lamb said his only wish was that he had asked Tigers shortstop Edgar Renteria for the ball. Renteria had taken the throw from Magglio Ordonez and tagged Lamb during the home run trot.

Yes, just another no-doubt blast for Lamb. Those in Detroit who aren't into the NBA or NHL can return to Comerica Park tonight to watch this man continue to chase history.

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