Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Detroit 10, Minnesota 9
When: 8:10 PM ET, Thursday, September 2, 2010
Where: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Temperature: 70°
Umpires: Home - Dan Bellino, 1B - Rob Drake, 2B - Joe West, 3B - Angel Hernandez
Attendance: 39551

Gerald Laird belted a solo home run in the 13th inning, leading the Detroit Tigers to a wild 10-9 triumph over the Minnesota Twins in a game marred by numerous infield mishaps.

Don Kelly, Jhonny Peralta, Casper Wells and Ryan Raburn also homered for the Tigers, who avoided a three-game sweep and improved to 3-4 on their 10-game road trip.

With one out in the 13th, Laird deposited a 1-1 offering from Nick Blackburn (8-9) over the left-center field wall for his fifth blast of the season.

Jose Valverde (2-3) tossed three innings for the win after suffering his third blown save by allowing an unearned run in the 11th.

Minnesota erased a 2-0 deficit on Jose Morales' two-run single in the second inning before taking advantage of an error in the fifth by Detroit second baseman Will Rhymes to score three runs and take a 6-3 lead. Danny Valencia made it a four-run advantage with an RBI single in the seventh, but the Tigers rallied for four runs in the eighth to knot the contest at 7-7.

Peralta belted a one-out solo homer off Randy Flores and pinch-hitter Raburn followed with his 11th blast off Matt Guerrier. Three batters later, Twins shortstop J.J. Hardy made a throwing error on what would have been the third out, and Rhymes made Minnesota pay by grounding a two-run single up the middle.

Alexi Casilla delivered an RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the inning to give the Twins an 8-7 edge. But Wells led off the ninth against Jesse Crain with his first career home run, forging yet another tie.

Brandon Inge helped the Tigers take a 9-8 lead in the 11th, leading off with a double and scoring two batters later on a single by Raburn. He then aided the Twins in the bottom half, making an error at third base on a potential game-ending double-play grounder by Michael Cuddyer that loaded the bases.

Delmon Young followed with another grounder that might have ended the contest. But after fielding the ball, Rhymes bumped into shortstop Ramon Santiago at second base, barely getting a force out as Denard Span raced home from third with the tying run.

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Detroit   Minnesota
Justin Verlander Player Scott Baker
No Decision W/L No Decision
6.0 IP 2.0
4 Strikeouts 3
10 Hits 3
4.50 ERA 9.00
Hitting
Detroit   Minnesota
Ryan Raburn Player Danny Valencia
3 Hits 3
2 RBI 2
1 HR 0
6 TB 3
.750 Avg .600
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Detroit 19 5 38 .328 29 13 10 5 1 2
Minnesota 15 0 15 .288 24 11 8 3 0 2