Minnesota Twins Shutout Detroit, Kepler Goes Deep
MINNEAPOLIS -- — Joe Ryan threw seven innings of one-hit ball and Max Kepler stayed hot with a pair of home runs as the streaking Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 5-0 on Wednesday night.
Michael Pineda (1-1) took the loss for Detroit. He gave up four runs, including all three Twins homers, in five innings against his former team.
Ryan (3-1) was dominant from the start, holding the Tigers hitless until Miguel Cabrera laced a single in the fourth. The right-hander walked just one batter and struck out nine, two shy of his career-high. He extended his scoreless streak to 17 2/3 innings and lowered his ERA to 1.17.
Kepler, who homered and doubled Tuesday, started the scoring when he led off the second inning by driving Pineda's fastball 401 feet to the opposite field in left-center.
Kepler struck again with two outs in the fourth. This time, Pineda threw a changeup down and in, and Kepler turned on it. The ball hit the facing of the second deck in the right-center, 423 feet away.
Minnesota took a 4-0 lead in the fifth when Trevor Larnach led off with a double and Jeffers followed with a line-drive home run to left.
Larnach led off the seventh with his second double of the night and Jeffers drove him in with another double to make it 5-0.
It's an early start for the series finale today as RHP Bailey Ober (1-1, 2.81) will make his fourth start of the season for the Twins. Over his last two outings, Ober has allowed nine hits and one earned run while walking one and fanning nine in 11 innings.
Detroit will send LHP Tarik Skubal (1-1, 2.30 ERA) to the mound Thursday afternoon. In his most recent start, Skubal went six innings for the first time, blanking the Rockies on five hits while striking out six.
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