MINNEAPOLIS -- Brad Radke gave up three home runs. It was one pitch he was fretting over afterward, though.
Radke gave up three of Detroit's four solo homers, including a tie-breaking shot to Dmitri Young with two outs in the sixth inning, and the Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 Saturday night.
"It was probably the dumbest pitch I threw all year," Radke said of the changeup to Young. "I don't want to second-guess myself, but that wasn't good pitch selection."
Ivan Rodriguez, Omar Infante and Marcus Thames also homered as the Tigers won their 41st game, only two short of their total for 2003 when they lost an AL-record 119 games.
"This is not the team of the last few years," Tigers manager Alan Trammell said. "We can do some things, score some runs and play some exciting baseball."
Nate Robertson (8-4) pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits and two runs -- both unearned. He struck out seven. Robertson has won six of his past seven decisions.
His one loss in that span came Monday at Yankee Stadium, when he gave up seven runs in just 1 2/3 innings.
"I didn't want to go into the long break with another sour outing," Robertson said. "So it was big for me to be aggressive, especially in the fifth when things got tough."
Ugueth Urbina worked the ninth for his 14th save in 16 opportunities.
Radke (5-5) struck out a season-high eight in six innings. He gave up five hits, all for extra bases.
Radke, who shut out Kansas City in his last start, lost this bid after only six pitches when the game's first hitter Infante homered to left.
Thames provided Detroit a two-run cushion with a seventh-inning homer off Twins reliever Aaron Fultz. Rodriguez led off the fourth with his 12th homer of the season.
The Twins, who have struggled to score runs for Radke, tied it in the fifth with the help of a mistake by the Tigers.
With Michael Restovich on second and two outs, Cristian Guzman hit a sharp grounder up the middle. Shortstop Carlos Guillen made a good play to knock it down, and threw to third baseman Eric Munson to trap Restovich, who had rounded third too far.
Restovich had no choice but to head for home and scored when Munson threw the ball away for an error. Guzman went to second on the error and scored on Michael Cuddyer's single.
"(Third-base coach Al Newman) tried to stop me," Restovich said. "But I'm not one of those guys who can stop on a dime."
Robertson didn't give up much else. The Twins only put two men on base against him one other time, with two outs in the sixth, and he got Henry Blanco on a routine fly to left to end the inning.
"They probably shouldn't have gotten any runs," Trammell said. "He was on a mission."
Notes
Young was back in the lineup after
missing one game with a sore ankle. ... Munson atoned for his error with
a nice barehanded play on an infield chopper by Guzman, nipping the
speedy Guzman at first with a strong throw. ... Detroit tied its season
high with three errors and struck out 12 times. Every Tigers batter
struck out at least once. ... It was Infante's first career leadoff
homer. ... The Twins leading hitter, Joe Mauer, and their leading RBI
man, Jacque Jones -- both lefties -- were out of the starting lineup
against the lefty Robertson. Mauer pinch hit in the eighth and drew a
walk. And Jones pinch hit in the ninth.
AP NEWS
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