Gibson bears down, Twins win first home series since July

Before you dive into that morning pot of coffee, the next sentence might be the only pick up you need.

The Twins have won a series. Not only that, but one at home.

Their 8-4 victory over Detroit on Wednesday allowed them to take two of three from the two-time defending AL Central champions, who saw their lead over Kansas City shrink to one-half game thanks to an in-game personality change by Kyle Gibson and six extra-base hits from an offense that leads the majors in runs scored since Aug. 1.

"We want to finish strong," said Gibson, who managed to pitch six innings after a dreadful start. "We play a lot of teams who are in the playoff race and we want to be a spoiler. That's kind of our mentality. We want to go out and be in every game like we've been and have a chance at the end to win it and make a difference."

The Twins won a series for the first time since Aug. 11-13 at Houston. Their last series win at home was nearly two months ago, July 21-23 against Cleveland.

Some impostor started in place in Gibson and had the Twins in a 2-0 hole in the first inning. The Twins, however, scored three runs off David Price in the bottom of the inning.

But Detroit got an RBI single from Torii Hunter and an RBI double by Miguel Cabrera to take a 4-3 lead. The Twins had the bullpen warming up.

Pitching coach Rick Anderson went to the mound and told Gibson: "You've given up two runs before in your career. It's not a big deal. Let's settle down."

In the dugout after the inning, catcher Kurt Suzuki told him: "We need you to go five innings and keep us in the game."

Gibson also remembered something he heard recently at chapel — the part of your brain that controls anxiety also controls thankfulness.

"You can't have those two emotions at the same time," Gibson said. "I said, 'All right, I'm going to be thankful for where I am, go about the business and have fun with it.' "

After throwing 46 pitches the first two innings, Gibson got through the third with eight pitches and the fourth with eight more. After facing 14 batters over the first two innings, he faced 13 over the next four.

And Gibson (12-11) was rewarded.

The Twins scored three runs on four extra-base hits in the sixth to knock Price (14-12) out of the game and take a 6-4 lead. Price was supposed to be a salve for a rotation without the injured Anibal Sanchez when they traded for him in July, but he's given up at least four earned runs four times in nine starts with the Tigers.

This has been Tigers baseball the past several weeks as they try to hold off the Royals and win their third consecutive division title. They still are 10-6 in September as they head to Kansas City for a massive weekend series.

The Twins, meanwhile, will try to play spoiler. They face Cleveland this weekend but end the season with four games at Detroit.

"It was fun to watch them play," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We scored some runs early and [Detroit] did, too. I was proud of Gibby, how he hung in there.''