Tigers 5, Twins 3: Andrew Romine hits the 1st grand slam of his career

DETROIT — Andrew Romine’s first-ever grand slam stole the show from Michael Fulmer’s salvaged start and handed the Tigers a 5-3 win over the Twins. Fulmer recovered in time to finish strong, though, handing the Tigers a series win with help from the offense.

Fulmer struggled in the third inning and was on the ropes at 74 pitches, but he finished with 110 pitches after six innings of work. His leadoff homer allowed to Brian Dozier set what appeared to be a dismal tone, and it appeared like he might get pulled early. But he finished by striking out seven Twins and giving up just four hits in all to recover for a solid outing.

As proper of a recover as his start was, though, it paled to the offensive show the Tigers put on — or rather, Andrew Romine. Nicholas Castellanos led off the fourth with a double to left, Victor Martinez reached first on a hit by pitch, Justin Upton walked to load the bases, and Tyler Collins singled in a run to keep the carousel moving.

Romine, he who got two doubles off Chris Sale in the Red Sox series, stepped to the plate and crushed a pitch halfway up the right field seats. A 3-0 deficit quickly flipped to a 5-3 Tigers lead, and Kyle Gibson’s day was done after that frame. Alex Wilson would pitch a quick eighth with no trouble, but he had to work around two two-out walks to vulture a testy save.

ROARS:

Andrew Romine: Hit the first grand slam of his career, and it was a doozy. He also singled.

Michael Fulmer: Really, his only major struggle was in the third inning. Overall he put in a good day and struck out seven batters in six innings of three-run ball, even with the leadoff homer.

Kyle Ryan: Ryan had a solid inning of work, allowing one walk.

HISSES:

Miguel Cabrera: Still having bad luck. He had a couple of warning track flyouts, but he’s still not seeing results and continues to have a rough start.

STREAKS AND INFO:

• Andrew Romine’s grand slam was the first of his major league career.
• Romine’s slam was just the second multi-run homer of his career. His first was Sept. 27, 2016 when Tyler Collins was on third in a 12-0 clobbering of the Indians.
• Romine’s slam gave the Tigers home runs in their first eight games of the season for the first time in franchise history. The last time a Major League Baseball team did that was when the Indians had homers in nine straight in 2012.
• Romine is 6-for-11 with three doubles and the grand slam in his last three games.
• With the win over the Twins, the Tigers moved into sole occupancy of first place in the American League Central Division.
• With the win, the Tigers secured the series and won their second straight series — they finished with a (as yet unfinished) tied 1-1 series against the White Sox due to rain.