DETROIT TIGERS NOTES:

TIGERS WIN SECOND STRAIGHT VS. TWINS: After falling behind 1-0, the Tigers scored seven unanswered runs and cruised to a 7-1 win last night. Matt Vierling hit a pair of solo home runs and finished the game 3×4, while Javier Báez went 1×3 with a three-run homer. Kerry Carpenter and Jonathan Schoop each added a hit and a RBI in the game. Will Vest started and threw a scoreless inning with two strikeouts. The Tigers bullpen combined for 8.0 innings with only one run allowed.

ON THE MATT: Matt Vierling finished last night’s game with three hits, including a pair of solo home runs. Vierling recorded the second multihomer game of his career (other, June 17, 2022 at Washington (Game 2)). In five games since being reinstated from the injured list on Monday, Vierling is 9×17 with a double, three home runs and four RBI.

KISS IT GOOD-BÁEZ: Javier Báez delivered the big blow in last night’s game with a three-run homer in the third inning, his fifth of the season. Báez has hit safely in six consecutive games and in nine of his last 10, over which he is batting .302/.311/.512 with a double, a triple, two home runs and seven RBI. Báez enters today’s game with 996 hits in his career, four shy of reaching 1,000.

GETTING OFFENSIVE: The Tigers scored seven runs in last night’s game, notching their sixth straight game with five-or-more runs scored. It’s the team’s longest streak of at least five runs scored since May 15-23, 2016, when the Tigers had eight consecutive games with five-or-more
runs scored. After scoring just 14 runs in its first eight games this month, Detroit has plated 38 runs over the last six contests.

HOLTON PUTTING UP ZEROS: Tyler Holton threw 2.2 scoreless innings in relief last night, giving up two hits with a walk and a strikeout. Holton
has not allowed a run in six outings this month, tossing 8.1 shutout frames. For the season, Holton has a 1.96 ERA (36.2IP/8ER) and a 0.98 WHIP, which ranks 10th among American League relievers (min. 25.0 innings).

TIGERS AND TWINS: The Tigers and Twins continue their first series of the season this afternoon. Detroit went 8-11 against Minnesota last season, including a 2-7 record at Target Field. The Tigers have lost the season series to the Twins each year dating back to 2017.

AGAINST THE AL CENTRAL: The Tigers continue divisional play today against the Twins. Detroit is 11-7 against American League Central teams so far this season. The Tigers have finished below .500 against AL Central foes in each of the last five 162-game seasons, including a 34-42 record last season.

ON THE ROAD: The Tigers are 2-0 on their current four-game road trip. Detroit is 14-21 on the road this season. As a team, the Tigers are hitting .214/.287/.333 away from Comerica Park, while the pitching staff has a 4.18 ERA (303.2IP/141ER).

INJURY REHAB UPDATES: Matt Manning made an injury rehab start with Triple A Toledo last night, throwing 3.0 innings and allowing an unearned run on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts…Beau Brieske made an injury rehab appearance with Toledo last night, walking one and striking out two in 1.1 hitless innings.

TIGERS ON THE IL:

• OF Akil Baddoo (right quad strain, 10-day IL on June 10)
• RHP Beau Brieske (right upper arm discomfort, 60-day IL on March 30, retroactive to March 27)
• RHP Alex Faedo (right middle finger discomfort, 15-day IL on June 3, retroactive to May 31)
• OF Riley Greene (left fibula stress reaction, 10-day IL on May 31)
• RHP Matt Manning (right foot fracture, 60-day IL on April 12)
• OF Austin Meadows (anxiety, 60-day IL on April 8, retroactive to April 7)
• RHP Casey Mize (right elbow sprain, 60-day IL on February 17)
• RHP Freddy Pacheco (right elbow sprain, 60-day IL on March 27)
• LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (left index finger pulley rupture, 15-day IL on May 30, retroactive to May 29)
• LHP Tarik Skubal (left elbow strain, 60-day IL on March 14)
• RHP Spencer Turnbull (neck discomfort, 60-day IL on May 12, retroactive to May 7)
• RHP Trey Wingenter (right biceps tendinitis, 60-day IL on April 22, retroactive to April 19)

TODAY’S TIGERS STARTING PITCHER

43 Joey Wentz • 1-6, 7.23 ERA (56.0IP/45ER)

• Wentz will make his 14th appearance overall and his 13th start of the season today at Minnesota.
• Made the first relief appearance of his career in his last outing on Sunday vs. Philadelphia, allowing two runs on one hit with two walks and four strikeouts in 4.1 innings.
• Has faced the Twins twice in his career, throwing 8.2 innings and allowing two unearned runs on three hits with four walks and eight strikeouts…will be making his first career appearance at Target Field this afternoon.
• Struck out a career-high seven batters and allowed only one run on six hits in 5.2 innings on April 14 vs. San Francisco.
• Saw his first Major League action in 2022, starting seven games and posting a 2-2 record with a 3.03 ERA (32.2IP/11ER) and 27 strikeouts…
  also appeared in 12 games, including 11 starts, with Triple A Toledo and went 2-2 with a 3.17 ERA (48.1IP/17ER) and 53 strikeouts.

MINNESOTA TWINS NOTES:

THE TWINS: Have gone 2-2 through four games on their 10-game homestand, sweeping the Brewers in two games on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by consecutive losses to the Tigers on Thursday and Friday night…today, they will continue the homestand with the third of four games against the Tigers and wrap the series tomorrow afternoon…after this series, the Twins will welcome the Red Sox to Target Field for four games from Monday-Thursday… the Twins have gone 20-16 at home and 15-19 on the road.

The Twins are on game five of a 16 games in 16 days stretch, their next off-day being in Baltimore on June 29…the Twins have 21 games in 23 days leading up to the All-Star Break (July 10-13).

THIRD INNING UNKIND TO RYAN: The Twins lost to the Tigers last night at Target Field by a score of 7-1…Joe Ryan (7-4) was the starter and loser, allowing six runs on seven hits in 7.0 innings pitched, allowing five runs on five hits in the third inning…the offense recorded seven hits, two from both Edouard Julien and Donovan Solano…Alex Kirilloff drove in the Twins only run with a solo home run to the opposite field, his fourth homer of the season.

Joey Gallo recorded his 500th career hit, a second-inning double, the 96th double of his career.

JOSÉ DE: José De León is making his seventh career start, first since April 11, 2021 at Arizona… he has gone 2-1, 6.84 ERA (26.1 IP, 20 ER) with 12 walks and 33 strikeouts in six career starts with Los Angeles-NL (4) and Cincinnati (2)…De León’s season-high for innings pitched is 2.0, done twice (5/28 vs. TOR & 6/8 at TB)…his season-high for pitches thrown is 31, done twice (6/10 at TOR & 5/21 at LAA).

USE YOUR HEAD: The Twins announced today that they have recalled left-handed pitcher Brent Headrick from Triple-A St. Paul…Headrick pitched in seven games (5 starts) during his most recent stint with the Saints from May 4-June 9, going 3-1, 3.79 ERA (35.2 IP, 15 ER), nine walks and 40 strikeouts…the 25-year-old made three relief appearances for the Twins from April 19-26, posting a 3.24 ERA (8.1 IP, 3 ER) with one save, four walks and 12 strikeouts… he made his major league debut on April 19 at Boston, earning the save, allowing one run on one hit, with two walks and three strikeouts in 3.0 innings pitched in a Twins 10-4 victory…to make room for Headrick on the 26-man roster, the Twins have optioned right-handed pitcher Josh Winder to Triple-A St. Paul…during his recent stint with the Twins, Winder made two relief appearances, going 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA (4.0 IP, 1 ER), one walk and five strikeouts.

TWINS AND TIGERS: The Twins and Tigers are playing the third of 13 meetings in 2023.

Five of the Twins’ next nine games will be against Detroit as they will travel to Michigan for a three-game series next weekend to kick-off a nine-game roadtrip.

Carlos Correa is hitting .316 (18-for-57) with five doubles, two home runs, nine RBI and an .890 OPS in his last 14 games vs. the Tigers.

Michael A. Taylor is hitting .341 (15-for-44) with a .919 OPS in his last 13 games vs. Detroit.

Christian Vázquez is hitting .329 (27-for-82) with seven doubles, three home runs, 15 RBI and an .894 OPS in 24 career games vs. the Tigers.

WILLI WORLD: Willi Castro played four seasons for the Tigers from 2019-22, hitting .246 (282-for-1147) with 50 doubles, 11 triples, 29 home runs, 114 RBI, 159 runs scored and 31 stolen bases…he finished the 2020 season fourth place in AL Rookie of the Year voting, behind Kyle Lewis, Luis Robert Jr. and Cristian Javier.

Castro is hitting .286 (16-for-56) with two doubles, three home runs, six RBI and an .821 OPS in his last 19 games since May 24, which includes eight steals in eight attempts.

Aside from one pitching appearance, Castro has played six different defensive positions this season: leftfield – 23 games (15 starts), third base – 16 games (11 starts), shortstop – 7 games (0 starts), second base – 7 games (4 starts), centerfield – 9 games (3 starts) and rightfield – 4 games (2 starts).

C4 IGNITING: Carlos Correa hit a go-ahead grand slam on Saturday at Toronto, a walk-off home run Tuesday night against Milwaukee and the game-tying triple Wednesday afternoon

vs. Milwaukee…he has hit safely in seven of his last eight games, hitting .281 (9-for-32) with three doubles, one triple, three home runs, 10 RBI, a .343 on-base percentage, a .719 slugging percentage and a 1.062 OPS in that span…since May 10, he has raised his batting average 30 points, from .185 to .215 in 28 games…below are his first 32 games and last 28 games (since May 10) by comparison:

AVG H 2B HR RBI BB K OBP SLG OPS OPS w/ RISP
FIRST 32 .185 23 5 5 15 13 30 .261 .363 .624 .499
LAST 28 .250 26 10 4 19 15 34 .345 .481 .825 .762

NEW YEAR, NEW YOU: Twins starters have averaged 5.7 innings-per-outing, up from 4.8 in 2022…they have pitched 6.0-plus innings 40 times this season, which matches their total from last season…by June 17, 2022, they had reached 6.0-plus just 16 times…additionally, below are the starting staff’s rankings in a few categories among other AL teams:

INNINGS ERA BAA BB/9.0 FIP WHIP K’s OPS
HOU – 399.0 TB – 3.07 TB – .220 SEA – 2.06 TB – 3.47 MIN – 1.13 MIN – 417 TB – .640
MIN – 396.0 HOU – 3.25 MIN – .231 MIN – 2.36 MIN – 3.49 TB – 1.13 CWS – 406 MIN – .661
TOR – 394.2 TEX – 3.36 TEX – .235 BAL – 2.62 SEA – 3.60 SEA – 1.14 TOR – 397 SEA – .675
TEX – 394.1 MIN – 3.64 SEA – .238 TEX – 2.67 TEX – 3.87 TEX – 1.17 HOU – 384 TEX – .683
CWS – 384.1 TOR – 3.99 NYY – .240 HOU – 2.71 HOU – 3.90 HOU – 1.21 LAA – 373 HOU – .704

SOME LOVE FOR THE LEFTIES: Today marks the 14th time this season Minnesota has faced a lefty starter…Twins are 6-7 when a left-hander is the opposing starter…the Twins’ last win in a game started by a lefty was against Yusei Kikuchi on June 9 at Toronto as the Twins won 3-2 in 10 innings.

The Twins have the fifth-fewest at-bats in baseball vs. left-handed pitching at just 507…also the third-fewest hits with 114.

Twins are slashing .225/.299/.379 with 17 homers vs. lefties, compared to .233/.315/.408 with 73 homers vs. righties.

Donovan Solano is hitting .333 (19-for-57) with eight doubles and a .903 OPS against lefties this season.

DONNIE, YOU’RE OUT OF IN YOUR ELEMENT!: Donovan Solano has reached safely in each of his last seven games, hitting .435 (10-for-23) with two doubles, two home runs, six RBI, six walks, a .552 on-base percentage, a .783 slugging percentage and a 1.334 OPS in that span.

Solano is hitting .333 (28-for-84) with 10 RBI, 11 walks and an .845 OPS in 30 games at Target Field this season…his home batting average ranks eighth best in the American League.

JOEY LONGBALLS: Joey Gallo has an average exit velocity of 93.4 mph, ranking seventh best in the AL and 11th best in baseball… additionally, he ranks fourth in baseball in hard hit percentage at 57.6%…Gallo leads the Twins in both home runs (11) and slugging percentage (.480)…lastly, Gallo has an average home run distance of 406 feet, the longest on the club.

I’LL TAKE OBP FOR 400, ALEX: Alex Kirilloff has posted a .411 on-base percentage in his last 18 games, since May 27, reaching base 30 times in 73 plate appearances (16 hits, 12 walks, 2 hit-by-pitch)…in 36 games for the Twins, he has posted a .394 on-base percentage, which is sixth among AL players with a minimum of 130 plate appearances.