Mauer, Crede power Twins to 6-2 win over Tigers

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Joe Mauer hit a home run, and was robbed of another by Clete Thomas, and the Twins’ struggling bullpen protected a lead for three innings in Minnesota’s 6-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.

Joe Crede also homered for the Twins in his first at-bat after missing three games with a hamstring injury.

Jeff Larish and Ramon Santiago homered for Detroit, but Armando Galarraga (3-3) still hasn’t figured out how to beat Minnesota. He gave up five runs on six hits in 5 2-3 innings and is 0-5 with a 5.63 ERA in his career against the Twins.

Kevin Slowey (5-1) gave up one run on eight hits in six innings for the Twins. Reliever Jesse Crain was booed lustily after giving up a leadoff homer to Santiago to start the seventh, but Jose Mijares, Matt Guerrier and Joe Nathan retired nine in a row for an embattled bullpen that surrendered a two-run lead in the eighth against Seattle on Sunday.

With one on in the first inning, Mauer lifted a drive the opposite way that was headed to the seats. But Thomas leaped at the left field wall and caught it just before it landed in the first row to take the homer away.

In the third, Mauer put a little extra oomph on it. Thomas ran out of real estate and slammed into the wall as Mauer’s two-run homer barely reached the seats for a 4-0 lead.

The sweet-swinging lefty had two hits and a walk in the game, his seventh multi-hit game and fifth in a row in a start that has been surprising even by the two-time AL batting champion’s lofty standards.

He is hitting .500 (16 for 32) despite missing all of spring training and the first 22 games of the season with a back injury and has come back stronger than ever.

Mauer homered on his first swing of the season and has four on the season. It took him 78 games to hit four homers last year, and only 10 to do it this season.

Slowey had to work hard in every inning. He got bailed out in the fifth when second baseman Matt Tolbert made a brilliant diving stop of a grounder from Miguel Cabrera to start an inning-ending double play.

But the Tigers never could string hits together and left eight men on base as their three-game winning streak ended.

Notes: Tigers manager Jim Leyland twice left the dugout to argue calls in the game and went 1-1 against the umpires. In the first, Tolbert made a catch in foul territory and threw to 1B where umpire Paul Nauert ruled Jeff Larish out. But after Leyland argued that Larish tagged up before leaving the base, home plate umpire Ed Rapuano overturned the call. In the sixth, 1B umpire Paul Schrieber ruled that Crede beat out a double-play throw from 2B Placido Polanco. Replays showed that he was out. ... Tigers 3B Brandon Inge reached base in 24 straight games to start the season. But after going 0 for 4 on Tuesday, he is 3 for his last 25 with 11 strikeouts while his batting average has plummeted from .316 to .269.

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