Detroit Tigers vs Minnesota Twins Match Player Stats On Sep 04, 2020

Josh Donaldson and Jorge Polanco hit first-inning home runs and Randy Dobnak pitched five shutout innings for his sixth win of the season to lead the Minnesota Twins to their third consecutive victory, 2-0 over the Detroit Tigers in the first game of a doubleheader on Friday afternoon in Minneapolis.

Dobnak (6-2) was coming off a start at Detroit on Saturday during which he gave up career highs in hits (12) and runs (six) in an 8-2 loss. He bounced back to limit the Tigers (17-18) to just four singles and a walk over five innings while striking out four.

The six wins moved him into a tie for the major league lead with Shane Bieber (Cleveland), Max Fried (Atlanta) and Yu Dravish (Chicago Cubs).

Tyler Duffey struck out two of the three batters he faced in the sixth and Taylor Rogers pitched around a lead single by Jeimer Candelario in the seventh to garner his eighth save in 10 tries.

Matthew Boyd (1-5), coming off his first win of the season against the Twins, allowed two runs on four hits over six innings while striking out eight. He also hit two batters.

Minnesota (23-16), swept in a three-game series by the Tigers for the first time since 2016 last weekend in Detroit, wasted little time taking the lead in Friday's opener of a five-game series in four days.

Polanco led off with his fourth home run of the season, driving a 3-2 pitch barely over the wall and into the flower boxes in left.

Donaldson, playing his second game since coming off the injured list after straining his right calf on July 31, followed with his second homer of the season, lining a 441-foot drive into the restaurant above the batter's eye in center field.

The Twins before the game place outfielder Max Kepler on the 10-day injured list with a left adductor strain.

--Field Level Media