Byron Buxton homers and doubles to lead Twins to 9-3 win over Tigers

DETROIT (AP) — Byron Buxton hit a home run and a double, Christian Vázquez had a homer and three hits and the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 9-3 on Friday night.

Pablo López (9-7) allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings, striking out seven.

Tigers starter Keider Montero (1-4) allowed six runs on eight hits, including three homers, in five innings.

Buxton and Trevor Larnach gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead with back-to-back homers in the first, and Matt Wallner added a home run to right in the second.

Javier Báez hit his second homer in as many days to make it 3-2 in the third, but Minnesota scored three in the fourth.

Willi Castro knocked in two with a single to left and took a big turn around the bag, prompting second baseman Colt Keith to throw to first. The Tigers were wearing their black City Connect jerseys and the only person wearing that color at first was umpire Mike Muchlinski. Keith's throw sailed into Minnesota's dugout, allowing Castro to take third. He scored on Buxton's double to left.

Vázquez hit a two-run homer off Joey Wentz to make it 8-2 in the sixth.

The Tigers loaded the bases with no one out in the seventh, but Gio Urshela grounded into a force at the plate before Báez and Wenceel Pérez popped out.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Twins: Activated 3B Royce Lewis (adductor strain) from the injured list and optioned C Jair Carmago to Triple-A St. Paul. Lewis came into the game hitting .292 with 10 homers and 18 RBIs in 24 games.

Tigers: Placed All-Star OF Riley Greene (hamstring) on the injured list and recalled UTL Ryan Vilade from Triple-A Toledo. Greene has been injured in each of his first three seasons, limiting him to 293 games.

UP NEXT

The teams play the second game of the series on Saturday, with Tigers ace LHP Tarik Skubal (11-3, 2.34) facing Minnesota RHP Joe Ryan (6-6, 3.65).

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