It took Craig Breslow 90 major league appearances and a six-run seventh inning from the Twins lineup, but the 28-year-old reliever finally earned his first big-league win in unlikely fashion -- he took the mound with his team down 5-0.
But to these Twins, blown leads and large deficits mean little. Thursday's victory cemented a three-game sweep of the Tigers and came just hours after a back-and-forth, 13-inning, walk-off win. It was the team's ninth come-from-behind win of the season. "It just feels like you're never out of a game," outfielder Denard Span said. "No matter what the deficit is, we feel like we can just get a couple baserunners when we're down, get to the meat of the lineup and just see what happens. Anything can happen. It just seems like it gets contagious, once we're down we string along some good at-bats, and it just gets contagious."
Breslow was the lone reliever left in the Twins bullpen Wednesday, and the first one out of it in Thursday's afternoon game. The left-hander took over for Scott Baker in the seventh and pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings, lowering his ERA from 6.75 to 5.84.
The Twins improved to 15-6 against the Tigers since May of last season.
TWINS 6, TIGERS 5: A six-run seventh inning remedied the Tigers' five runs in the first half of the frame and put Joe Nathan in position for his sixth save of the year.
