DETROIT — The Twins spent the month of June looking for some stability from their starting rotation after watching a pair of pitchers go down with injuries. It’s nearly the end of the month but finally, for three straight games at least, they seem to have found some.
Joe Ryan went out and dealt six scoreless innings on Wednesday. Simeon Woods Richardson followed with five zeros of his own on Thursday. And on Friday, after the Twins decided to start David Festa rather than use an opener, the lanky righty tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings, lifting the Twins to a 4-1 win over the first-place Detroit Tigers in the series opener at Comerica Park in a game that was delayed for 21 minutes by the threat of rain.
Festa, who gave up eight runs in his last outing and entered the day with a bloated 6.39 earned-run average, allowed just two hits in his outing. The second one was the last pitch he threw in his start, which was one of the longest in his career. Festa struck out six batters in his start and walked none, after walking three in each of his last two starts.
The starter received some run support in the fourth inning when Matt Wallner and Brooks Lee hit back-to-back two-out doubles. That was one of two runs Lee would drive in in a game that was strong for him both offensively and defensively.
The Twins scored their second run of the night in the fifth when Byron Buxton smacked a pitch over the middle of the plate out to left field for his team-leading 18th home run of the season.
Buxton scored the Twins’ fourth run of the day, as well, drawing a walk in the seventh inning and then advancing to second on a stolen base. After Trevor Larnach’s groundball moved him over, Buxton raced home to score when Willi Castro laid down a rare sacrifice bunt.
Detroit scored one run in the loss as reliever Griffin Jax worked his way into and out of trouble in the eighth inning. But were mostly quieted, marking the third straight game that Twins pitchers have given up one or fewer runs.
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