Tigers 1, Twins 0: Matt Boyd and the bullpen never gave Minnesota a chance

With the offense MIA, Matt Boyd exploited the Twins and their overall awful performance this year. Aided by a lockdown bullpen, the Tigers won 1-0 over the Twins, with the only run support coming on a home run by Justin Upton.

The offense may have been ice cold but the Tigers’ pitching staff was untouchable. Boyd, coming off a strong start in Toronto, blew the floundering Twins away for six shutout innings. This game had nothing to do with the Tigers’ offense. They had all of three hits and one run off Justin Upton’s solo shot, with some sweet defensive plays mixed in — a nice change to the sloppy defense of late.

The pitching staff needed to be nothing short of perfect, and they lived up to the billing. As dominant as Boyd was, the bullpen was equally so, and they put on another display of just how fantastic the ‘pen has been for Detroit. The whole shebang seemingly rested on the shoulders of Boyd to keep it scoreless after Upton homered.

However, it was Francisco Rodriguez who would tempt fate in the ninth when he walked a batter with one out. Yet, despite that, he struck out Brian Dozier for the second out. A throw to second by Jarrod Saltalamacchia nailed Danny Santana attempting to steal, thus ending the ballgame convincingly.

ROARS:

Matt Boyd: Gave Detroit six shutout innings of three-hit ball.

Justin Upton: Belted a solo shot to left in the second, keeping it just fair of the foul pole for the first run of the game.

Tigers bullpen: Didn’t allow a run, or a hit in three innings.

HISSES:

Tigers offense: It was a win, but only just. Apart from Upton, only two other players had hits and none drove in a run.

STATS AND INFO:

• The home run by Justin Upton was the 200th of his career. He’s the 10th active player to reach 200 homers in his age-28 season, joining Adrian Beltre, Ryan Braun, Jay Bruce, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Giancarlo Stanton, and Mark Teixeira.

WIN PROBABILITY GRAPH: