Buddy Kennedy hits big home run in first start with Detroit Tigers in 6-1 win over Twins

MINNEAPOLIS — Buddy Kennedy moved quickly out of the batter's box.

He slowed down after a few steps.

Kennedy, a second baseman for the Detroit Tigers making his first start in his second game, watched the ball fly to left field for a two-run home run with two outs in the third inning.

The Tigers beat the Twins, 6-1, in Sunday's finale of a three-game series in which the Tigers won two games. The Tigers (12-10) have won four of seven games against the Twins, the reigning American League Central champions, in the past 10 days.

The two-run homer from Kennedy, who started in place of slumping rookie Colt Keith, chased Twins right-hander Louie Varland in the third inning. For the Tigers, right-hander Casey Mize completed six scoreless innings — navigating five hits and three walks — with four strikeouts.

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Varland should have been chased by the Tigers in the first inning — when he threw a whopping 39 pitches and walked three batters — but he escaped an early departure by striking out Parker Meadows to strand runners on the corners.

But the Tigers didn't come up empty in the first inning.

Kerry Carpenter put the Tigers ahead, 1-0, with an RBI single after Riley Greene and Mark Canha walked to open the game and advanced into scoring position on Spencer Torkelson's groundout.

With the single, Carpenter extended his hitting streak to seven games and his RBI streak to six games. The six-game RBI streak is the longest by a Tiger since the 2017 season, when Justin Upton put together a six-game streak in early August.

Kennedy also helped extend the Tigers' lead to 2-0 with a sacrifice fly.

Varland, who has a 9.18 ERA in four starts, allowed four runs on three hits and four walks with two strikeouts in 2⅔ innings, burning through 74 pitches in another bad outing. His 74th pitch — a middle-middle cutter to Kennedy — ended up in the left-field seats for a two-run home run.

It marked the second homer of Kennedy's MLB career in his 42nd game.

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Casey Mize's zeros

Mize didn't look sharp in the first inning.

He loaded the bases on two walks and one single with one out, but he kept the Twins from scoring by recording back-to-back outs against Austin Martin (lineout) and Willi Castro (flyout). After that, Mize didn't fall into another three-ball count until Castro's four-pitch walk in the sixth inning.

Mize owns a 2.95 ERA in four starts.

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In the bottom of the third inning, Byron Buxton grounded into an inning-ending double play. Kennedy, who crushed the pull-side homer in the top of the third, fielded the ball up the middle, touched second base to get the lead runner and threw the ball to first baseman Mark Canha to get the speedy Buxton.

Mize used his slider for called strikes — simply because it wasn't missing any bats and lacked horizontal movement — before finishing hitters with his high-velocity fastball. He finished with nine whiffs on four fastballs and five splitters.

The splitter wasn't a weapon until the fifth inning.

That's when Mize racked up all five whiffs with his splitter.

In the fifth, Edouard Julien struck out looking on a knuckle curve painted at the bottom rail, and Trevor Larnach struck out swinging on a splitter below the strike zone. Buxton whiffed at a pair of splitters before grounding out to end the fifth inning.

Mize also stuck out Alex Kirilloff with a splitter for a called-third strikeout as part of his clean sixth inning. After Castro's four-pitch walk, Carlos Santana popped out to end Mize's fourth start.

His fastball averaged 95.1 mph.

The Twins scored their lone run in the bottom of the ninth inning when Martin launched a solo home run off right-handed reliever Alex Faedo. Castro doubled and Santana walked after the homer, but Faedo wiggled his way out of the jam by retiring three batters in a row to end the game.

Spencer Torkelson's big hit

The Tigers pushed their lead to 5-0 in the seventh inning.

Spencer Torkelson, working as the designated hitter, provided the big hit off right-handed reliever Jay Jackson's splitter with two outs in the seventh inning. Torkelson hit the middle-middle slider with a 106.5 mph exit velocity for a double.

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The ball kicked off the wall in left field and scored Greene from first base.

Torkelson has recorded his highest four exit velocities (on 69 balls in play) in the past six days: 108.7 mph double on April 18 against the Texas Rangers, 107.2 mph flyout on April 16 against the Rangers, 106.8 mph double on April 17 against the Rangers and 106.5 mph double on Sunday against the Twins.

He also had a 106.2 mph double on April 5 against the Oakland Athletics.

Torkelson's double off Jackson in the seventh inning ranked as the 18th hardest hit at Target Field this season. Torkelson added a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning for a 6-0 advantage.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers close series with Minnesota Twins with 6-1 win