Twins beat Tigers for sixth straight: Max Kepler bashes two homers, Joe Ryan pitches seven one-hit innings

Max Kepler saw a familiar face in the Target Field outfield while he warmed up Wednesday, so he caught his attention and gave him a friendly wave.

"You show your respect and you tip your cap and say hi if you have a moment," Kepler said. But friendship only goes so far. So when he encountered ex-teammate Michael Pineda again 20 minutes later?

"Once you're in the box," Kepler said flatly, "it's business."

Kepler victimized his pal by blasting an 0-1 fastball just over the wall in left-center, then did the same two innings later to an 0-1 changeup, except that one stuck in the ribbon scoreboard on the second-deck facing in right field. Those homers, plus seven shutout innings from rookie Joe Ryan, earned the Twins their sixth consecutive victory, 5-0 over the Tigers.

"This is a great night for me. I've very happy to see my old teammates," Pineda said after allowing four runs — including a two-run homer from his former catcher, Ryan Jeffers — over five innings. "I think I threw the ball really good. I just missed my location for three pitches, and they did a bit of damage."

Ryan did plenty of damage to the Tigers' hopes of evening the series, keeping them off-balance all night with a three-pitch mix of sliders, changeups and especially 93-mph fastballs. The rookie struck out six hitters his first time through Detroit's order, never allowed a Tiger to reach second base, and gave up only a two-out single to Miguel Cabrera in the fourth.

Reliever Danny Coulombe surrendered a double to another former Twin, Robbie Grossman, in the ninth, but finished off the Twins' second two-hitter, and third shutout, of the season.

"Joe was spectacular. Everything he wanted to do, he could do," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He's pitched like an ace to this point."

He had help from Jeffers, who earned a handful of borderline strikes with adept framing — and also from a couple of voices in his head, belonging to fellow starters Chris Archer and Chris Paddack.

Jeffers "is really good at his job, and the more games we get to throw to him, the better it feels," Ryan said. And the voices? They're a product of the starting rotation's habit of talking through every situation before, and sometimes during, games.

"I always hear Archer's voice on the slider, Paddack or someone else on another pitch, just helping me out," Ryan said. "It's more between pitches. When I step on the rubber, it's pretty quiet. On the grass, I'll let myself think a little bit, but as soon as I step on the rubber, it's pretty empty."

Just like his opponent's boxscore.

"I knew Mike was more of a painter — he likes to paint the strike zone, but he's not going to overpower you, so I just have to be patient," Kepler said. "I took two swings off him, and that's all I needed."