Fulmer key as Tigers put end to losing skid
Win puts pitcher, team back on track
Michael Fulmer won for the first time in four starts, Niko Goodrum ended an 0-for-14 skid with a home run and the Detroit Tigers stopped a five-game losing skid with a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. Brian Dozier led off the bottom of the first with a drive to deep centre that missed a home run by a few inches. The ball stuck in a seam between two pads near the top of the eight-foot wall in centre, and Dozier was given a double. Fulmer (2-3) allowed one run and four hits in 5 2/3 innings with five strikeouts, improving to 4-0 against Minnesota as he threw a seasonhigh 112 pitches. He had lost his previous three starts, allowing 14 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings. Shane Greene pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 11th save in 14 chances, completing a five-hitter. Goodrum, Nicholas Castellanos and Victor Martinez had two hits each for the Tigers.
Kyle Gibson (1-3) gave up three runs and six hits in six innings. He is 0-3 in nine starts since winning at Baltimore on March 31. Martinez hit a sacrifice fly in the first, but Eddie Rosario had an RBI single in the bottom half, the first of his three hits. Goodrum homered for a 3-1 lead in the fourth following a single by Martinez, and JaCoby Jones added an RBI single in the ninth off Ryan Pressly.
Detroit’s Matthew Boyd, who left Tuesday ’s game with a left oblique spasm, was feeling good and expected to get out and move around pre-game, according to manager Ron Gardenhire. Manager Paul Molitor said third baseman Miguel Sano (left hamstring strain) was going to play first base for Triple-A Rochester before potentially returning to the Twins. Mike Fiers (4-3, 4.57) is to start Friday for Detroit against the Chicago White Sox in the opener of a season-long 12-game homestand.