MINNEAPOLIS — The Tigers were walking a shaky tightrope coming into this series with the Central Division-leading Twins.
Which made their come-from-behind 8-4 win in the series opener at Target Field Thursday so, well, stabilizing.
With five starting pitchers on the injured list, they’ve been getting by with a four-man starting rotation, using a bullpen game every fifth game. With the rainout Tuesday, they had to start two of the four starters to get through the subsequent double-header Wednesday.
Which left them having to deploy bullpen games in two of the four games against the Twins, Friday and Sunday. Not ideal, especially with Joey Wentz slated to pitch Saturday. He hasn’t completed five innings in his last six starts.
All of which put an inordinate amount of weight on lefty Matthew Boyd’s start in the series opener Thursday.
“Tonight is really where our focus is and on Matt Boyd,” manager AJ Hinch said before the game. “Our pitching staff is going to be under a lot of pressure, just generally, facing this team, and with the volume of innings that we’re going to need until things stabilize.
“But we’re going to have to read and react as we go. We have nothing up our sleeve. We don’t know how it’s going to play out until we see how we use the bullpen tonight. That will dictate how we use the game tomorrow.”
It didn’t look good for a minute, especially when Boyd laid a two-strike change-up over the heart of the plate to Donovan Solano, who sent it into the seats in left-center, a three-run homer in a four-run second inning.
But Boyd rallied. He didn’t allow another run, grinding through six innings. He posted eight strikeouts and left with the Tigers ahead 5-4.
He saved the bullpen and put his team in a position to win — which they did when relievers Will Vest and Jason Foley locked it down until the Tigers tacked on three insurance markers in the top of the ninth.
The Tigers chased Twins starter Sonny Gray in four innings, working four walks and forcing him to throw 79 pitches.
After scoring single runs in the first and fourth, Javier Báez tied the game with a two-run triple off left-handed reliever Jovani Moran in the fifth. He scored on a groundout by Eric Haase.
Báez had two hits and scored a run. Matt Vierling was on base four times with three singles and a walk. He knocked in the Tigers' first run.
In the ninth off reliever Pablo Lopez, Spencer Torkelson ripped a two-out, two-run double and scored when Zack Short followed with a double. Jake Rogers also doubled in the inning.
Alex Lange pitched around a throwing error by Báez in the ninth.
