Rising from the ashes of the fire sale, Twins overpower first-place Tigers 9-4

DETROIT – The Twins won their first series since the All-Star break with a 9-4 victory Wednesday at Comerica Park, taking two of three games from the first-place Detroit Tigers, behind a strong performance from Thomas Hatch.

Yes, that’s the name of a Twins pitcher.

Hatch wasn’t one of the players the Twins picked up in their many trades or part of the big group called up from the minor leagues. He was available on waivers, designated for assignment by Kansas City, so the Twins claimed him Monday, and he threw 4⅓ scoreless innings in his longest big-league outing in more than three years.

It will take some time to learn these new guys, but at least the offense was led by some more familiar names.

Rookie second baseman Luke Keaschall hit a pair of doubles and drove in three runs, continuing his incredible start to his career. Brooks Lee, Austin Martin and Alan Roden all homered.

“It’s always fun to come into a team like this because they’re young and hungry,” said Hatch, a 30-year-old righthander on his fourth big-league team. “It just makes coming to the park really fun.”

The Twins finished their six-game road trip through Cleveland and Detroit, their first games after their massive trade-deadline sell-off, with a 3-3 record. They will begin a three-game home series Friday night against Kansas City.

MLB standings

Feeding off youthful energy, the Twins scored runs in six of the first seven innings. They knocked Tigers starter Jack Flaherty out of the game after 4⅔ innings.

“We kind of all are at that stage where we’re trying to get our feet wet in the big leagues and all trying to figure it out,” said Roden, the only trade deadline acquisition who was immediately put on the major league roster. “It’s pretty fun to go through that with guys. Hopefully, we can build each other up.”

The Tigers, who lead the American League Central by six games over Cleveland, erased an early three-run deficit by the third inning. They hit three homers off Twins starter Pierson Ohl, all on changeups, and Twins killer Kerry Carpenter blasted a go-ahead, two-run homer to right field.

No problem for the Twins offense.

The Twins pulled ahead after Matt Wallner reached on an error to begin the fifth inning. Ryan Jeffers smacked an RBI double into the right-center gap, extending his hitting streak to nine games, and Keaschall followed with an RBI double that bounced down the right-field line and out of play.

Keaschall, who lined a two-out, two-run double past diving left fielder Riley Greene in the first inning, has reached base in all nine career games he has played, the second-longest on-base streak by a Twins player to begin his career. Australian infielder Glenn Williams owns the team record with a 13-game streak from June 7-28, 2005.

“Everybody brings a different toolset,” Keaschall said. “Mine just happens to be playing with a little bit of fire, playing with some intensity. I like to bring something people can build off of. It doesn’t feel like extra pressure. It doesn’t feel like anything. It just feels like an opportunity to go be who I am.”

Martin opened the sixth inning with a pinch-hit homer off lefty reliever Tyler Holton, pulling an inside fastball past the left-field wall. Two batters later, Roden hit his first homer in a Twins uniform in a lefty-on-lefty matchup. Roden, acquired from Toronto in the Louie Varland/Ty France trade, drilled a sweeper to the right-center seats for his second career home run.

“Sometimes you psyche yourself out left-on-left,” Roden said. “It’s kind of like you almost manifest your own failure.”

“Our bullpen has been used a bit, and we didn’t have that many options to go to,“ manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We had some guys [unavailable]. We needed [Hatch] to do that today if we were going to win.”

Hatch, who was at a park near his home in Dallas with his 21-month-old daughter Monday when he learned the Twins claimed him off waivers, allowed two hits and one walk against 15 batters.