Twins hold on for Milone, top Tigers for first time in ’16

DETROIT — An unexpected pitching duel between Tommy Milone and Anibal Sanchez broke out before the Twins busted out a five-run seventh inning, capped by a Brian Dozier two-run home run, for a 6-2 victory over the Tigers on Tuesday at Comerica Park.

The win was Minnesota’s first over Detroit in eight tries this season.

Milone (3-2), pitching for the first time since his wife gave birth to their baby daughter last week, held a Detroit lineup stacked with right-handed bats to a James McCann single and two leadoff walks over his first eight innings before three consecutive singles rallied Detroit in the ninth. He induced 11 groundouts along the way to a season-best 8 1/3 innings.

“It is what it is. Milone threw the ball great,” Victor Martinez said. “You have to give credit. He deserves credit. He did a great job.”

Milone’s work bought the Twins time to figure out Sanchez (5-11), whose 10 strikeouts marked his first venture into double digits since May 24 of last year. Back-to-back third-inning singles from Kurt Suzuki and Byron Buxton set up Eduardo Nunez for a sacrifice fly to open the scoring before Nunez’s two-run single off Bruce Rondon helped break the game open in the seventh.

The Tigers’ ninth-inning rally brought the potential tying run to the plate with the bases loaded before Brandon Kintzler struck out McCann and Jose Iglesias to end it.

“It got a little more interesting than we were hoping, given the six-run cushion, but [Kintzler] did a nice job,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDHeart and Hustle comes through: Nunez was named the Twins’ recipient of the MLB Players Alumni Association’s Heart and Hustle Award on Tuesday. He hustled for a bunt-single in the first inning, hit a sacrifice fly in the third and delivered a two-run single in the seventh that stretched the Twins’ lead to 3-0. He then stole second base (his 23rd steal of the year) and came around to score.

Before Tuesday’s game, Molitor called Nunez a “dirty player, in terms of his uniform.” After the game, he was pleased to …

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