Twins’ offense held in check during opener

DETROIT — Matt Boyd tossed six scoreless innings in arguably his best outing as a Tiger, allowing Justin Upton’s second-inning solo homer off Ricky Nolasco to stand as the lone run in a 1-0 win over the Twins on Monday at Comerica Park.

Boyd, making his second start since rejoining the injury-riddled Tigers rotation, held Minnesota to three hits and one runner in scoring position. The southpaw mixed fastballs and breaking balls to fan seven, including All-Star Eduardo Nunez and slugger Miguel Sano twice each. Boyd also induced seven ground-ball outs, including a key double play from Brian Dozier after Sano singled leading off the fourth.

“Today we were just down with the two-seamer, down with the slider, down with the change and down with the curve,” said Boyd. “Everything got a ground ball out there. It’s just the way it happened today.”

Boyd (1-2) earned his second Major League win in his 19th big league start. It was his strongest outing since his Tigers debut, when he tossed seven innings of one-run ball to beat the Royals last Aug. 5.

That game, too, was a pitching duel. Ricky Nolasco (4-8) matched Boyd with three hits over six innings, but the one that left the yard doomed him to the Twins’ seventh loss to the Tigers in as many matchups this season.

“Sometimes in baseball, you’re supposed to win 1-0,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “When the other pitcher is doing well or dealing, we need our pitcher to deal a little bit better, and that’s what happened tonight.”

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDUpton, up and away: Upton, playing his second game in eight days after the All-Star break and a two-day bereavement leave, turned on a 92-mph fastball in from Nolasco and kept it fair, sending a 419-foot drive down the left-field line for the 200th homer of Upton’s career.

“It’s definitely cool to reach that milestone,” Upton said, “but I hope that’s not the last milestone I …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com