DETROIT– DETROIT (AP) — Mark Canha hit a solo home run in the first inning, Tarik Skubal pitched five scoreless innings and the Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 8-2 on Friday night.
Canha, Spencer Torkelson and Matt Vierling each had two hits and two RBIs, helping Detroit pull away with six runs from the fourth to sixth innings.
Skubal (2-0) gave up just two hits and two walks while striking out five. Alex Faedo, Andrew Chafin and Will Vest remained relieved.
Pablo Lopez (1-2) gave up five runs on six hits and three walks in four innings and had seven strikeouts.
Minnesota has six hits, including a pair of doubles, and is batting a major league low .184. They were scoreless until the ninth when Kyle Farmer hit an RBI double and Edouard Julien followed with a run-scoring single.
A familiar face in the bullpen didn’t do his part to keep the game potentially within reach.
Right-hander Michael Tonkin, acquired from the New York Mets to help an injury-depleted bullpen on Tuesday, allowed two runs, two hits and two walks in two innings in his first appearance for Minnesota since 2017.
Minnesota, which won the AL Central last season and advanced to the playoffs for the first time in more than two decades, lost for the seventh time in nine games.
Detroit, hoping to make the playoffs for the first time in a decade, has made it two straight for the first time since a 5-0 start.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins shortstop Carlos Correa left the game with an oblique strain after being pulled in the third inning.
NEXT
Tigers RHP Kenta Maeda (0-1, 9.00) is scheduled to face his former team, which plans to have RHP RHP Joe Ryan (0-1, 3.18) play in the opener of a doubleheader on Saturday.
RHP Matt Manning, who walked four and didn’t give up a hit in 5 2/3 innings last week against the New York Mets, is Detroit’s likely pitcher in the second game and Twins RHP Simeon Woods Richardson is expected to make his season debut .
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