SPORTS

Castellanos picks up Pelfrey with 3-run HR in Tigers' win

Chris McCosky
The Detroit News

Minneapolis — Nick Castellanos has been where Mike Pelfrey was Sunday.

“I know better than anybody that this game has ups and downs,” he said, after hitting a clutch three-run homer to ignite the Tigers’ series-sweeping 6-5 win over the Twins. “I don’t know how many times I’ve had a microphone in my face saying, ‘What’s going on? Why are you struggling?’

“Everybody goes through it. Mike is going through it now and it’s our job to pick him up.”

Done.

BOX SCORE: Tigers 6, Twins 5

Pelfrey, pitching against his former teammates, left the game in the fifth inning with the Tigers trailing 5-2. But, five scoreless innings from the bullpen, clutch hitting from the heart of the batting order, Castellanos’ sixth-inning bomb and a fortuitous misplay by the Twins in the eighth took him off the hook.

“Not great on my part, by any means,” Pelfrey said. “But at the end of the day, we won. The bullpen picked me up, they were fantastic, and the offense picked me up. I appreciate it.

“Minus me, this was a pretty good team win.”

It’s five straight wins for the Tigers and six out of seven.

“It’s a great win,” said Victor Martinez, who got three more hits Sunday and was 9 for 13 in the series. “As a team we need to win games like this. It was a great comeback. Right after we tied the game, we just said, keep fighting, keep fighting, and we took the game.”

The Tigers scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth off reliever Ryan Pressly, with a little bit of help.

Slight tweak puts life back into K-Rod's fastball

Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s two-out double to left field scored Justin Upton from first. Upton hesitated around third and would have had a hard time scoring had shortstop Eduardo Escobar not dropped the relay throw from the outfield.

Ironically, the game ended on a successful relay throw by the Tigers.

Miguel Sano, after Tigers closer Francisco Rodriguez retired the first two batters in the ninth, hit a slicing drive into the corner in right field. It was an easy double but he tried to get to third base.

The Tigers executed a perfect relay, from J.D. Martinez in right, to shortstop Jose Iglesias to Mike Aviles, who applied the tag at third.

“I was trying to get to third,” Sano said. “I knew I had a double. Not much to say. I knew I made a mistake.”

There was nothing fluky about the way the middle of the Tigers’ lineup hit the ball, though. Victor Martinez and Upton both had three hits Sunday and were 16 for 26, with six RBIs combined in the series.

Then there was Castellanos. He came in hitting .363 and was 5 for 8 in the first two games of this series with a home run and three RBIs.

He knocked in the first Tigers’ run Sunday, reaching out on a two-strike breaking ball from Twins starter Ricky Nolasco and hitting it deep enough to left field to score Victor Martinez from third in the second inning.

The three-run home run in the sixth also came on an off-speed pitch (82 mph). He fell behind in the count and worked it full before swatting Nolasco’s final pitch of the game 371 feet over the wall in left.

“I was just reacting to what was thrown,” Castellanos said. “I just wasn’t trying to commit myself to a fastball. I was just trying to stay in the middle of the field and not try to do too much.”

He’s showing a highly disciplined approach for a third-year player.

“My discipline is still something I need to work on,” he said. “It’s not like I have everything figured out. I am still learning and still trying to get better. I am doing a good job of hitting pitches I can handle, but I still get in trouble when I chase.”

He has now hit safely in 15 of the last 17 games, batting .393 in that span.

“I think he has great expectations and the organization has great expectations for him,” Victor Martinez said. “This is his third year and you can see he’s more comfortable. He is moving around with a lot more energy and he’s going to get better.”

His homer seemed to knock the fight out of the Twins. And if it didn’t, the Tigers bullpen did.

Kyle Ryan (⅓), Alex Wilson (1⅔), Mark Lowe (1), Justin Wilson (1) and Rodriguez, who earned his seventh save with a scoreless ninth, locked it down.

The Twins managed just three hits off Tigers relievers.

“You can go right down the line – Alex, Lowe, Justin, K-Rod – they held them in check and gave us a chance to come back and win the game,” manager Brad Ausmus said.

The Tigers 'pen has allowed just two runs in the last 26 innings of work.

Funny what a difference a week makes. A week ago the Tigers were swept at home by the Indians and were a sub-.500 team (8-9). They will open a three-game series in Cleveland Tuesday with a 14-10 record and second to the White Sox in the AL Central.

“That’s baseball,” Victor Martinez said. “I’ve been telling you guys a lot, this is baseball. Just make sure we show up ready to play and see what happens. Things are going pretty good right now. We just hope to keep it rolling.”

Twitter @cmccosky


Detroit Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos celebrates his three-run home run to tie the game Sunday. The Tigers defeated the Twins, 6-5, Sunday to extend their winning streak to five games.