Twins 15, Tigers 2: Ten Runs in the Sixth at Target Field

One run each. Then Minnesota opened the dam.

September 1, 2026 – Minneapolis – Riley Greene grounded out in the first, and Kevin McGonigle scored. Kody Clemens answered with a homer to right, his 24th. 1-1.

The Minnesota Twins scored 14 of the next 15 runs. They beat the Detroit Tigers 15-2 at Target Field. The sixth inning was 10 of those runs by itself.

Troy Melton lasted 5 1/3 innings and left down 7-1. Kyle Finnegan faced four batters in the sixth and did not record the second out. That is how a 1-1 game becomes a box score you have to read twice.

Larnach scored on an error. Then the sixth would not stop.

Minnesota's fifth started with a walk to Trevor Larnach and a double from Royce Lewis. Walker Jenkins reached on a fielder's choice. Dillon Dingler threw the ball away. Larnach scored. Lewis scored. Luke Keaschall doubled Jenkins home. 4-1.

The sixth was the game. Lewis hit a three-run homer to center, his 14th, scoring Josh Bell and Larnach. Keaschall singled Kaelen Culpepper home. Brooks Lee lifted a sacrifice fly. Jenkins scored again.

Ryan Jeffers then lined a three-run homer to left, his 13th. Keaschall and Clemens scored. Culpepper singled two more home. Bell and Gabriel Gonzalez. Ten runs. One inning. Detroit used Finnegan and Beau Brieske and still could not get the third out until the damage was already on the board.

Lewis finished 3-for-4 with a double, a homer, two runs, and three RBI. Jeffers went 2-for-4 with a triple, a homer, and three RBI. Culpepper drove in three. Keaschall had two hits and two RBI. Clemens's first-inning homer was the only Twin run that felt small by the end.

Detroit's second run came in the eighth. Dingler scored on a double from Hao-Yu Lee. Garrett Acton gave that one back, then Culpepper forced in Alex Jackson in the bottom half. Greene drove in McGonigle in the first and finished 0-for-4. Spencer Torkelson doubled and did not score.

Prielipp took the ball in a 1-1 game and left with a win

Andrew Morris started and allowed the first-inning run in one inning. Connor Prielipp took over and threw five scoreless: three hits, one walk, five strikeouts. Travis Adams threw a clean seventh. Acton finished the last two innings.

Melton: 5 1/3 innings, six hits, seven runs, five earned, one walk, four strikeouts, two homers. The two homers were Clemens and Lewis. The rest of the seven came after he left, and they were not his to stop.

A 15-2 final does not need a late rally. Minnesota scored in the first, fifth, sixth, and eighth. Detroit scored in the first and eighth. The gap lived in one half-inning at Target Field.

AthX Engine put Minnesota first on the team board

AthX Engine scored the Twins at 31 team fantasy points, first among 30 clubs on a 15-game Tuesday. Lewis led the night's hitters at 13 hitting fantasy points. Jeffers had 11. Prielipp had 18 pitching fantasy points. Detroit finished at minus-12.

Fantasy points measure the line. Share price is a different number. They often move together. They are not the same thing.

What's next

Minnesota just showed what this lineup can do when a sixth inning stays open. Prielipp's five zeros are the pitching note worth keeping. Detroit has to decide how much of Melton's night was the homers and how much was the bullpen that followed.

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*Sources: MLB Gameday, MLB schedule, AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*