Danny Valencia rips walk-off to lift Twins in 10th

MINNEAPOLIS -- It took the Twins until the 10th inning before they had a chance to face the Tigers' bullpen. But when they did get the chance, they were able to capitalize.

Michael Cuddyer singled off Ryan Perry to start the 10th and stole second base before scoring the winning run on Danny Valencia's walk-off single, giving the Twins a 2-1 victory over the Tigers at Target Field on Wednesday night.

The victory kept the Twins' lead in the American League Central at four games over the White Sox, who won earlier in the day to complete a three-game sweep over the Indians.

The contest began as a pitchers' duel, with Francisco Liriano and Max Scherzer exchanging zeroes for the first four innings before the Twins finally made a strike against Scherzer in the fifth.

The Tigers' right-hander retired 12 of the first 13 batters he faced and struck out six of them, including striking out the side in the third.

Liriano wasn't nearly as efficient in getting through the early innings of his outing, putting at least one runner on in each of his first five innings, but he managed to work his way out of trouble to keep the game scoreless until the fifth.

Scherzer blinked first. Delmon Young doubled down the right-field line to lead off the fifth inning, giving the Twins their first hit of the night. Danny Valencia followed Young's hit with a single to left field to put runners on the corners with no outs.

Jose Morales, who got the start at DH in place of Jim Thome after he was scratched with tightness in his back, followed by lacing a ball to deep center field that looked like it would fall in for another hit. But speedy Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson made a tremendous catch just before the warning track and turned it into a sac fly/double play. Young scored from third and Valencia, who was well on his way around the bases, was thrown out at first base.

Liriano threw 104 pitches in seven innings, striking outs seven and scattering five hits while walking one.

But the Twins saw their one-run lead vanish in the eighth. Jesse Crain gave up a leadoff hit to Jackson. With one out, left-hander Randy Flores struck out pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire turned to right-hander Matt Guerrier to face Miguel Cabrera, who walked on six pitches. Jhonny Peralta followed with an RBI single to left field, charging Crain with the run. It was only the second earned run that Crain allowed over his past 32 innings.

Scherzer wound up pitching nine innings for the first time in his career. He escaped trouble in the ninth and gave up one run on four hits, striking out nine on 106 pitches.



(mlb.com)