Game 156: Twins take first game of doubleheader
September 29, 2009
Minnesota @ Detroit (Game 1 of 4)
After being rained out on Monday, the Twins won a much needed game on Tuesday afternoon as they defeated the first place Detroit Tigers in the first game of a day-night doubleheader to pull within one game. It was a playoff-like atmosphere at Comerica Park, complete with the thrills of an extra inning game in which the Twins won by a score of 3-2.
Nick Blackburn faced off against Rick Porcello on the mound and the Tigers took an early 1-0 lead after Gerald Laird scored on an RBI single from Ramon Santiago that was nearly caught by first baseman, Michael Cuddyer, in the second inning. The Tigers tried to make it 2-0 in the third but Cuddyer promptly threw to Joe Mauer to throw out Clete Thomas at the plate.
The Twins would get their offense going in the fifth inning as Matt Tolbert hit a leadoff double to right field and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Nick Punto. Denard Span followed with a sacrifice fly to center to tie the game at one. With the game tied, Blackburn would settle down and retire twelve batters in a row before being taken out of the game after seven innings.
The Twins had a chance to put the game away in the ninth as Alexi Casilla started the inning with a double to left. Matt Tolbert advanced Casilla to second with a sacrifice bunt, however, Nick Punto tried for a suicide squeeze bunt but popped out to the pitcher for an inning ending double play.
Jon Rauch would start the bottom of the ninth with a walk to Carlos Guillen, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, but pitched out of the jam and got a little help from his defense when Denard Span made an inning ending running catch at the warning track to send the game into extra innings.
After making the great catch in the outfield, Span got things started in the tenth with a single to center. Span would advance to third after Brandon Lyon threw two wild pitches and would score on a line drive single from Orlando Cabrera. Lyon walked Joe Mauer and Carlos Gomez advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt before Delmon Young hit a sacrifice fly to center to score an insurance run.
The extra run was needed as Joe Nathan gave up a solo home run to Curtis Granderson to start off the bottom of the tenth. Nathan went on to retire the next three batters he faced to give the Twins the win and earn his career-high 45th save of the season.
Attendance: 35,243 (Comerica Park)
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