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 Home runs by Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera staked Max
Scherzer to enough runs for his 18th victory Thursday night, a 4-2
decision over the Minnesota Twins that kept Detroit two games in
front of the second-place Kansas City Royals with three games left
in the regular season.
Detroit reduced its magic number to clinch its fourth AL Central
crown to two, meaning the Tigers could do it Friday night with a win
over the Twins plus a Royals loss at Chicago against the White Sox.
"I'm very day-to-day, so I don't get overly concerned about it,"
Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said. "Obviously we'd like to win and
we'd hope Kansas City'd lose, but it's still business as usual on a
daily basis."
Scherzer (18-5) allowed at least one baserunner in each of his six
innings except the first, issuing four walks to go with the five
hits he gave up. He did strike out nine, however, and permitted just
two runs. "Now I need to fine-tune some more," Scherzer said, "because in the
playoffs, every pitch is important. I need to be more efficient
early in the count. That's where I need to be better."
Martinez continues to be baseball's best two-strike hitter. While
the league average with two strikes is in the mid-.170s, the
switch-hitting designated hitter entered play Thursday batting .336
with two strikes and .403 in 1-2 counts.
It was a low breaking ball on a 1-2 count that Martinez slugged for
his 32nd home run, which followed right fielder Torii Hunter's
double in the first inning.
Cabrera drove a high 0-2 pitch into the left-center-field seats in
the third to make it 3-0. The first baseman is hitting .270 when he
puts the ball in play on 0-2 counts.
"You could make the argument Victor's been swinging well all year,"
Ausmus said. "Miggy's certainly got hot this last month, and it's
well-timed."
Both home runs came off Minnesota rookie right-hander Trevor May
(3-6), who despite his record is making a solid bid to join the
Twins' rotation next season. May allowed three runs in six innings.
"He made a couple of mistakes," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire
said. "But when you do that to their big guys, they do that (hit
home runs).
"The ball Martinez hit was going down toward the dirt. The ball
Cabrera hit was up. But I thought Trevor did a good job. He threw
about 26 pitches in that sixth inning but got a big strikeout to end
it. That's a great way for him to end his season."
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The Twins got their only runs on a two-run double by first baseman
Joe Mauer off Scherzer in the fifth, pulling Minnesota within 3-2.
Detroit increased its lead in the seventh. Center fielder Rajai
Davis doubled down the right field line to drive in catcher Alex
Avila, who singled to left leading off against Minnesota reliever
Ryan Pressly.
Right-handers Joakim Soria, Joba Chamberlain and Joe Nathan worked
one perfect inning each to close out the win for the Tigers, with
Nathan getting his 34th save.
"They did a nice job, all three of those guys," Ausmus said.
"Seventh, eighth, and ninth did an outstanding job. Good innings,
threw strikes, quick innings, very efficient. Really, that's how you
wanna line it up."
After Martinez hit his home run, he went into Detroit's dugout and,
at the urging of teammates, swept a hand toward the bleachers in a
gesture designed to get more traction out of Wednesday's incident
with the Chicago White Sox.
Chicago lefty Chris Sale hit Martinez with a pitch in the sixth
inning Wednesday, and when players spilled onto the field, the
Detroit DH was told it was because Sale felt someone in the stands
was stealing signs and relying them to Martinez.
NOTES: Twins RHP Phil Hughes turned down a chance to earn a $500,000
bonus by pitching in a relief role to get the one more out he
needed. "I owe too much to this organization for the next two years
to be risking getting hurt for an incentive," said Hughes, 28, who
pitched the last of his 209 2/3 innings Wednesday. ... RHP Justin
Verlander is through for the regular season, but if the Tigers need
to win a playoff game Monday, he will start. Verlander pitched
Wednesday and earned his fifth win in his past six decisions. ...
Twins 3B Trevor Plouffe will get a second opinion on the left
forearm he broke Wednesday before making a decision on whether
surgery is necessary. ... The Tigers were crowded around clubhouse
televisions after their 4-2 victory over Minnesota, watching the New
York Yankees and Derek Jeter celebrating the shortstop's walk-off
RBI single in his last game in Yankee Stadium.
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