Kenta Maeda was a valued, popular member of the Twins for four years. But his former teammates had no welcome back gifts for him on Thursday, instead spoiling his return to Target Field.
The Twins knocked around the veteran starter for nine runs in just 3 2/3 innings, beating the Tigers 12-3 in the seven-inning, rain-shortened series finale.
“We love him here, but when we’re playing against him, obviously we want to win and we’re going to try to go out there and do just that,” fellow starter Bailey Ober said.
Jose Miranda was the chief tormentor of both Maeda and the rest of the Tigers’ pitching staff on Thursday, collecting a career-high five hits. Three of them were doubles, including one to lead off the second inning that helped kickstart the Twins’ (49-38) first rally after they had fallen behind by three runs early.
“It feels awesome. It feels great,” Miranda said. “One of the best days so far.”
Miranda drove in three runs in the win and scored four of them, raising his batting average on the season to .312 in the process. He became the second Twin to accomplish the feat this season after teammate Carlos Correa did so last month. After Miranda got the fourth hit, he said Correa started holding up four fingers at him in the dugout.
The infielder would not have a chance at a sixth hit. After his third double, the next batter, Ryan Jeffers, was hit by a pitch on the helmet, leading both teams to be waved off the field — which had started forming puddles.
“Obviously, you don’t want to see anybody get hit like RJ got hit at the end. When is the right moment to call it? There’s never really a clean answer for it,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But when we got off, it was the right time to get off.”
Jeffers, who had three hits Thursday, also played a big role in the Twins’ offensive attack, knocking in four runs. Two came as part of a four-run fourth in which he hit his 14th home run of the season, matching a career high for him.
That homer also marked the 22nd straight game that the Twins have hit a home run as they continue to extend their club record.
It came with two outs in the fourth inning, as much of the Twins’ offense did. They scored seven of their nine runs off Maeda with two outs in the inning and added an eighth two-out run later in the game.
“It’s difference-making,” Baldelli said. “You don’t know when those two-out hits are coming. Our guys found a way to put the ball in play.”
All the offense came in support of Ober, who gave up a solo home run in the first and allowed two unearned runs to score after a passed ball on strike three extended the second.
But after that, he settled in nicely, striking out eight Tigers (39-48) in his six innings of work and helping send the Twins to their fourth-straight series win.
“We’ve been competitive in every ballgame for about a month, and that’s not easy to do, and the only way to do that is for the entire team to contribute, the entire pitching staff to contribute, the entire bullpen to be out there and pitching and winning games at different times,” Baldelli said. “You need everybody. The guys are really kind of gluing together and playing good baseball.”
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