Tigers put up fight until 12th but Twins rise up to win opener

Detroit — Four extra-inning games in the first 13 of the season? Why not. In the first game of a doubleheader after a late night, rain-delayed victory Friday night? Sure.

The Tigers are becoming gluttons for the drama.

This one took three extra innings to sort out, but the Minnesota Twins ended up blowing it open with seven runs in the top of the 12th to beat the Tigers 11-5 in Game 1 at Comerica Park. It was the first extra-inning loss of the season for the Tigers.

"We play over 100 games in a season," Tigers starter Kenta Maeda said through interpreter Daichi Sekizaki. "Games like this do happen from time to time. What's important is the next one. As long as we can get that next one, we're going to get right back to it."

The top of the 12th, though, was a disaster.

Alex Lange walked Austin Martin with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead run. But then he bowed his neck and punched out Edouard Julien and Carlos Santana and seemed to be out of the inning when Ryan Jeffers hit a ground ball to third base.

But the ball ate up third baseman Zach McKinstry and it rolled into the left-field corner. All three runners scored.

And it got worse. Lange was at 36 pitches in the inning so, with four relievers already spent and another game looming, manager AJ Hinch brought McKinstry to the mound to get the last out. He ended up walking Manuel Margo and then giving up a three-run home run to Matt Wallner.

"The 12th was a mess and I messed up," manager AJ Hinch said.

Hinch had inadvertently made a second mound visit during the inning.

"I wanted to go tell Lange I was bringing in a position player after one more batter," Hinch explained. "I asked (umpire) CB Bucknor if I had a visit and he took it mean the visits on the board. (Pitching coach Chris) Fetter had gone out to the mound in what felt like forever ago.

"I screwed that up."

The Tigers missed an opportunity to win the game in the 10th after Riley Greene was intentionally walked, putting runners on first and second with no outs. Mark Canha got ahead 2-0 on reliever Jorge Alcala but bounced into a 5-4-3 double-play.

"We had tons of opportunities," Hinch said. "With the new rules in extra innings (with a free runner starting on second base), when you hold the opponent to no runs in the top of the inning, you've got to score. That's where you have to put the game away. Those missed opportunities are missed wins. That's the frustrating part."

Jeffers, whose pinch-hit home run tied the score in the eighth inning, singled home the free runner in the top of the 11th off Jason Foley to give the Twins the temporary 4-3 lead. His hit was the first allowed by a Tigers pitcher in extra innings this season.

Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the 11th inning, rookie Colt Keith lashed a single to right field, scoring free runner Spencer Torkelson to tie the score.

BOX SCORE: Twins 11, Tigers 5, 12 innings

Detroit was four outs away from securing its third straight win in regulation. Lefty reliever Tyler Holton got five straight outs protecting a 3-2 lead.

With two outs in the eighth inning, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent up right-handed hitting Jeffers to pinch-hit. Hinch countered with right-hander Shelby Miller. But Miller fell behind 0-2 and Jeffers lined a 93-mph fastball 403 feet over the wall in left field, tying the score.

The homer ended Miller’s streak of 19 straight scoreless outings, dating to last June and covering 23 innings.

Twins’ right-hander Joe Ryan went through the Tigers lineup like a buzz saw for six innings, establishing a career-high 12 strikeouts. Ten of the Tigers’ first 14 hitters went down on strikes. He ended up with 18 swinging strikes on 42 swings and 16 called strikes.

"Joe is a phenomenal pitcher," said Maeda, who was Ryan's teammate in Minnesota the last three years. "He's a strikeout pitcher and look what he did today. Coming into the game, I knew it was going to be a tough match-up for us to get a lot of runs. I did my best to keep the score on the low end."

And somehow, the Tigers were ahead 3-2 when he exited. Keith punched a two-strike RBI single to right field in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie.

Kerry Carpenter put the Tigers ahead 2-0 in the first inning, launching a 3-2 splitter, 415 feet into the seats in right-center field. It was a heady at-bat by Carpenter. Ryan threw him four straight splitters and, with the count 2-2, he tried to get him to chase a low four-seam fastball.

Carpenter laid off it and was right on time to barrel up the 3-2 splitter. The ball left his bat at 108 mph. It was Carpenter’s second homer of the season.

Then in the sixth, Torkelson led off with a double, went to third on a grounder to the right side by Carpenter and scored on Keith’s single.

The Tigers mustered just five hits off Ryan, but they made them count.

Maeda’s third start as a Tiger was easily his best. He kept the Twins hitters off balance for six innings, scattering five hits and striking out five with no walks. His command, which had been spotty in his first two outings, was precise. He threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 24 hitters he faced.

"What led to the success today was the mechanics," Maeda said. "I think that's starting to click and I think that led to good command on my pitches today."

The Twins put 18 balls in play against him with an average exit velocity of 87 mph.

But he had one costly misfire. It came after he snagged a ground ball by Edouard Julien with a runner on in the fifth inning. The Tigers were up 2-1 and it looked like a certain inning-ending double-play. But Maeda’s throw went into center field, sending Austin Martin to third.

He scored the tying run on a ground out.

Maeda finished strong, retiring five straight hitters, and gave way to the bullpen.

"It was the first time in my career where I faced my old team in an official, regular-season game," he said. "It felt uneasy at times, weird, odd."

Especially when his former catcher Christian Vazquez remembered the Japanese word he taught him last year — 'rojin' which means old man.

"He kept repeating that," Maeda said, smiling. "He kept calling me old man and grandpa."

Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky