Luke Keaschall’s error turns costly as Tigers jump Twins early in 7-0 victory

A late burst of rain Friday, five minutes before the scheduled first pitch at Target Field, forced the Twins to wait through a 26-minute delay before they took the field.

It took only 18 more minutes before the game was essentially decided.

Twins second baseman Luke Keaschall botched a potential double play grounder, the ball skipping off his glove, and the Detroit Tigers responded with three straight two-out hits off starting pitcher Pierson Ohl in a five-run first inning. The Twins never recovered in a 7-0 loss, their fourth defeat in their last five games.

“We gave them extra outs,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And they took advantage of it.”

If a five-run deficit before stepping into the batter’s box wasn’t enough punishment, the Twins produced only two hits. It was the third time in the last five days that they had three or fewer hits in a game.

Ohl, facing the Tigers lineup for the second time in the last nine days, gave up eight hits and seven runs (three earned) while recording seven outs. He gave up two singles on his first six pitches before inducing a weak ground ball against Kerry Carpenter.

Instead of trading a run for two outs, Keaschall’s costly error breathed life into the Tigers’ offense. Ohl retired two of the next three batters, sandwiched around a 12-pitch walk to Spencer Torkelson, but Dillon Dingler blooped a two-out, two-run single over Keaschall’s head into center field.

“Some days you groove sliders and they get hit 110 [mph] right at guys, or sometimes you jam them and it’s 65 miles-per-hour for an RBI single,” Ohl said. “That’s why we hate it, and we love it so much.”

BOXSCORE: Detroit Tigers 7, Twins 0

MLB standings

Ohl was in the dugout and prepared to take the mound when the tarp was unrolled five minutes before the scheduled first pitch.

“I was like a Little Caesars Pizza, I was hot and ready,” Ohl deadpanned.

He gave up two more runs in the third inning. Detroit’s first three batters reached base, which included an RBI double from Dingler to left field, and Báez drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

In six career outings, Ohl owns a 0-3 record and a 7.90 ERA in 13⅔ innings.

“For him to go out there and compete at his best, you can’t give four or five outs in different innings and think that it’s going to go smoothly,” Baldelli said.

Tigers starter Charlie Morton pitched six scoreless innings, permitting two hits, but it didn’t look as dominant as the box score showed. He walked three batters, hit a batter, and he threw only 56% of his pitches for strikes.

The Twins stranded two runners in the first inning after a pair of two-out walks. Brooks Lee hit a leadoff double in the second inning, but it didn’t amount to anything. There were two runners on base and no outs in the fourth inning, and the next three batters failed to hit the ball out of the infield.

Shut out for the ninth time this year, the Twins left eight runners on base and went hitless in nine at-bats with a runner in scoring position.

“We’ve been able to get things going in games before when we’ve fallen behind,” Baldelli said. “Not an impossible task. But it was a tough start. It was obviously a little bit on the messy side early on.”

In a seven-run game, Twins righthander José Ureña pitched 5⅔ scoreless innings. Ureña yielded two hits, both infield singles, and one walk while striking out three.