Twins fall from first to third place after getting swept in doubleheader at Detroit

DETROIT – The Twins began Saturday's doubleheader in Comerica Park in first place, where they had resided for all but two July days this season. They ended it in third, a dwelling they haven't occupied in midsummer since the Fourth of July 2018. And it took some fireworks to put them there.

Jaime Candelario and Miguel Cabrera each blasted two-run homers in the second game, and the Tigers, who allowed only eight hits all day, swept a pair of seven-inning games, 8-2 and 4-2, at Comerica Park. The Twins have lost four straight games, and at 20-14 are now 1½ games behind Cleveland in the AL Central and a half-game behind the White Sox.

"We know where we're at, we know where we should be, we know where we can be," shrugged Tyler Duffey, who allowed Cabrera's game-winner in the second game. "Two sevens is better than 18 [innings], I guess, but when you lose both, it [hurts] just as much as a normal doubleheader."

The Twins, still missing Josh Donaldson, Byron Buxton and Mitch Garver from their lineup, have not scored more than three runs in their past five games of this road trip. And they couldn't change that fact Saturday despite facing a pair of Tiger starters with ERAs of 8.48 and 10.38. Nelson Cruz homered in both games and retook the American League lead, but the only other extra-base hit by a Minnesota batter all day was an Ehire Adrianza double off Matthew Boyd in Game 1. Naturally, he was stranded.

"We're going to have to do more. We're going to have to find a way to get more base­runners out there and win those at-bats," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "You can't rely just on a swing here and a swing there to win a game."

Rookie Tarik Skubal limited the Twins to two singles and Cruz's homer in Game 2 in earning his first major league victory. He nearly allowed another run, but a Miguel Sano blast to the deepest part of the ballpark was caught by Tigers center fielder Victor Reyes as it cleared the fence. Jake Cave immediately got revenge by stealing a home run in similar fashion from Cameron Maybin in the bottom of the inning.

Minnesota's only other run in Game 2 came after Eddie Rosario hustled from first to third on a single to left field by Sano, then scored on a sacrifice fly. The Twins threatened in the seventh and final inning, putting two runners on with nobody out against Tigers reliever Gregory Soto. But Sano bounced into a double play and Marwin Gonzalez looked at strike three to end the game.

Detroit piled up 16 hits in only six turns at bat, the most the Twins have allowed in a game this season. But in a modern-baseball rarity, none of them carried over a fence, and only a couple of them even reached the warning track.

Instead, the Tigers peppered Randy Dobnak and reliever Lewis Thorpe with line drives through the infield, perfectly placed ground balls, and even a couple of pop flies to places where no fielder was standing. They're called singles, a quaint relic of Robinson's time, but Detroit strung together 13 of them, scored in five consecutive innings, and walked away with a lopsided victory.

"It was kind of frustrating. I feel like every ball they put in play found a hole," said Dobnak, whose ERA ballooned from 1.78 to 3.12. "I guess the way that I pitch, I'm going to have games like that, where they put 'em where they ain't."

Dobnak, who had never given up more than two runs or eight hits in his previous 15 major league appearances (11 starts), was his usual self, keeping the ball on the ground, with the occasional hard-hit liner mixed in, and the Twins turned double plays behind him in each of the first three innings. But of the 24 hitters he faced, 21 put the ball into play, and those balls kept eluding fielders, resulting in 10 singles.