Twins trim magic number to two with win over Detroit

DETROIT - Eddie Rosario doesn't need much motivation when he's playing baseball, doesn't require a reason to smack down the opposition. Especially with a playoff berth now perhaps only a day away.

Yet teams walk Nelson Cruz anyway.

For the third time in eight days, Rosario responded to a free pass to Cruz on Tuesday in one of the best possible ways: with an RBI double. Rosario served a cutter into the left-field corner, bringing home Willians Astudillo and Jason Castro to provide the margin of victory in the Twins' 4-2 victory over the Tigers and move them to the brink of a postseason berth.

Minnesota's magic number is two, meaning the Twins could clinch their first American League Central championship since 2010 tonight if the Twins beat Detroit and Cleveland loses to the White Sox.

"I haven't heard him say it, but Eddie gets that look in his eye. He seems to enjoy taking that as a slight," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the Tigers walking Cruz to face Rosario. "It's obviously not what's going on on the other side of the field, but he uses that maybe as some motivation."

Somehow, the Tigers are staying motivated, too. They absorbed loss No. 110, second most in their 119-year history, yet put up a better fight than the Twins might have anticipated. Spencer Turnbull limited Minnesota's offense to six hits, none of them home runs, and didn't allow a run to cross the plate for six innings.

But Detroit didn't back him with much of a lead. Jake Odorizzi — who has started eight games against Detroit, all of them victories, in his two seasons in Minnesota — allowed only one run in six solid innings before departing because of a hamstring cramp.

"He threw the ball great. Overall, it was a very, very nice start. I wish he could have maybe even kept pitching longer," said Baldelli, who removed the righthander out of caution. "Maybe under different circumstances, he would have been able to keep going. The stuff was good, the execution was good. He put the ball exactly where he wanted it."

Same with Turnbull, until tiring in the seventh. The Twins were ready.

Jake Cave led off with a single, and LaMonte Wade Jr. doubled him to third, putting a sudden end to Turnbull's night. That brought up Astudillo to face reliever David McKay. Astudillo, 0-for-8 since Sept. 5 with runners in scoring position, snapped that skid with a hard grounder up the middle, a single that turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead.

After McKay hit Castro with a pitch, Luis Arraez grounded out and Jorge Polanco lined out, and it appeared the rally might end there. But Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire chose to intentionally walk Cruz, and Rosario responded. He took a ball away from Nick Ramirez, then reached out and punched a cutter away into the left-field corner. Two runs scored, and the Twins had all the breathing room they would need.

"He seems to lock in on those types of at-bats," Baldelli said of Rosario, who has batted immediately after an intentional walk to Cruz seven times this season and has walked twice and doubled three times. "Those are tough at-bats. I mean, shooting the ball the other way like that, it's just a great swing from a real talented guy."

One who claims he's not out for revenge when Cruz — who has smacked 400 career home runs, after all — is pitched around.

"Not really, but I go to take good at-bats, 100 percent, every time I see that," admitted Rosario, who has followed a Cruz intentional walk with a double the past three times that situation has occurred. "I'm doing a good job hitting doubles to get RBIs."