DETROIT - It's clear that Shane Greene is no David Price or Anibal Sanchez. Talk about letting down his team: Greene gave up a run to the Twins.
Greene was otherwise the equal of his All-Star teammates, however, much to the Twins' frustration. Greene allowed only four hits in eight innings, and a solitary, shocking, unearned run, which represents the sum total of Minnesota's offense this season. The Twins slunk off to Chicago after absorbing a 7-1 loss before a few thousand Comerica Park fans who sat waiting through a 3-hour, 36-minute rain delay for the game to start.
In contrast to Greene, Kyle Gibson was ineffective, but unlucky, too, needing 89 pitches to retire 11 hitters. He gave up eight hits, six runs and five walks, and didn't strike out a Tiger hitter, but the tone was set by the first inning, when two popups fell where Twins fielders couldn't reach them, and a chopper threaded between third base and short. The result was two runs, and yet another deficit for the Twins.
"It wasn't anything to rave about as far as an offensive output," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.
Oh, the irony.
Minnesota's offensive output so far this season is laughable — literally. The Twins stopped a 34-inning scoreless streak, including 24 innings of futility this season, thanks to a misplay by Tigers left fielder Yoenis Cespedes. It was the second-longest shutout run at the start of a season in major league history, two games short of the record set by the Cardinals in 1943.
"The guys were kind of joking about it, believe it or not, after being down 22-0 [for the series]," Molitor said. "You've got to start somewhere and be a little bit lighthearted after you suffer through [24 scoreless] innings."
It came after Joe Mauer led off the seventh inning with a walk and Kennys Vargas looped a sinking line drive into short left-center field with one out. Neither Cespedes nor center fielder Anthony Gose could reach it, and the ball ricocheted off Cespedes' glove toward the wall. That allowed Mauer to round third base — making him the first (and only) Twin to advance that far this season — and head home, scoring the Twins' first run since Game 161 of last season.