MINNEAPOLIS -- For a couple pitches Friday night, it looked like Spencer Torkelson might be trying to hit Joe Mauer¡¯s retired number plaque at Target Field again.
It happened two years ago, and while Twins fans have stopped booing him for it, the message on the video board when he stepped to the plate in the first inning showed they hadn¡¯t forgotten. His drive just outside the left-field foul pole on Jorge Alcala¡¯s 2-2 pitch in the sixth inning Friday demonstrated how he could do it.
Torkelson would¡¯ve rather hit the pole than the plaque, and he came close again a couple pitches later. They were the kind of near-misses that often can seemingly doom an at-bat. After all, when he took a chip off of Mauer¡¯s plaque a couple years ago, he ultimately struck out, drawing loud cheers from Twins fans.
¡°Historically, as a baseball player, you see at-bats like that, and like 98 percent of them lead to strikeouts,¡± Torkelson said with a chuckle. ¡°And so that¡¯s definitely going through your head. But it¡¯s like, whatever I did to get to this point in this at-bat, just keep doing it. I felt like I saw [Alcala¡¯s] pitches well. He showed me every pitch he had. I felt like the odds were moving in my favor as that at-bat went on.¡±
Torkelson fouled off five consecutive pitches, six in all. The 11th pitch of the at-bat was the first changeup, a pitch Torkelson said he knew going in wasn¡¯t a strike pitch for Alcala.
¡°That¡¯s a really hard at-bat,¡± manager A.J. Hinch said, ¡°when you near-miss twice. And Alcala¡¯s not fun to face. It¡¯s a high-end arm with stuff and movement, and just erratic enough to make you a little uncertain of where the strike zone is. But he stayed really disciplined.¡±
It was a walk, not a homer. But it was the latest example of how Torkelson has grown as a hitter.
¡°Maybe I don¡¯t even get to that point,¡± Torkelson said of his previous approach.
It was also part of the key to the Tigers¡¯ latest comeback, a 7-6 victory that had enough twists and turns for a 3-hour, 21-minute marathon. Fittingly, in the Tigers¡¯ first regular-season matchup against the Twins since overtaking them down the stretch last season for a Wild Card spot, it encapsulated many of the qualities -- minus pitching chaos -- that lifted them down the stretch last year, from grinding at-bats to daring baserunning to a never-out-of-it approach.
The Twins had a 10 1/2-game advantage on the Tigers last Aug. 17, when Minnesota was a season-high 17 games over .500. The Tigers are 34-17 since then, while the Twins fell to 16-37. The teams have changed, but the trajectories so far this season seem the same.
¡°Definitely feels like a little bit of carryover there,¡± starter Reese Olson said. ¡°Understanding that no matter how the first half of the game goes, that the boys are going to scrap and claw, stay in the game and force the opponent to play nine innings. It¡¯s a lot of fun when we¡¯re playing ball like that.¡±
Before the Tigers got to Alcala in the sixth, they chased starter David Festa in the fifth when catcher Dillon Dingler went first to third on Gleyber Torres¡¯ two-out single through the right side. Strong-armed right fielder Matt Wallner¡¯s throw deflected into the dugout, Dingler scored to open Detroit¡¯s scoring and the Twins¡¯ bullpen carousel began.
¡°One of my first weekends up last year, [third-base coach] Joey Cora lit into us a little bit on how passive we were being on the bases,¡± said Dingler, referencing the meeting that was arguably a turning point last season. ¡°Towards the end of the year, we were being menaces on the basepaths, and that kind of became the identity of the team, putting pressure on other teams.¡±
The Tigers entered the sixth inning with a 4-1 deficit before Riley Greene and Torkelson drew back-to-back walks, grinding out 19 pitches combined ¨C nine of them foul balls ¨C from Alcala. From there, the hits came quickly. They weren¡¯t big, but they were timely, from Colt Keith¡¯s dribbler to load the bases to Zach McKinstry¡¯s two-run single on Alcala¡¯s 0-2 changeup to Dingler¡¯s game-tying single to Trey Sweeney¡¯s go-ahead grounder.
¡°As a team, you feed off at-bats like that,¡± Torkelson said. ¡°When you wear out a pitcher like that, he¡¯s going to make a mistake, and we capitalized.¡±
The Tigers didn¡¯t let up. Ultimately, back-to-back eighth-inning doubles from Sweeney and Javier B¨¢ez produced the add-on run that became the difference in the game.
¡°When we have good at-bats, we just continue to pass the baton,¡± Hinch said.
Torkelson was a big part of the relay.