Stingy hurlers Kennedy, Zimmermann to match up

Jordan Zimmermann and Ian Kennedy have settled in quickly with their respective new teams thanks to strong starts. On Wednesday, they'll get their first experience of the division rivalry the Tigers and Royals built the last few years.

It'll be a test for both, who were the major rotation additions for their respective teams. The Tigers jumped the market by signing Zimmermann to a five-year, $110 million contract over Thanksgiving weekend. Three months later, the Royals found their replacement for Johnny Cueto in Kennedy, signing the former D-back and Padre to a five-year, $70 million deal.

Both additions have paid off big early. While Zimmermann has yet to give up a run in 13 innings, beating the Yankees and Pirates, Kennedy has 13 2/3 innings of one-run ball in wins over the Twins and Astros. They'll get a different test Wednesday night.

Things to know about this game

• Kennedy will face the Tigers for the third time since he was part of their three-team trade with the Yankees and D-backs at the 2009 Winter Meetings that brought Max Scherzer to Detroit and Curtis Granderson to New York. Scherzer's signing in Washington a year ago helped set up Zimmermann's free agency.

• Justin Upton, a former teammate of Kennedy's in Arizona, is 3-for-8 with a home run against him. Ian Kinsler is 5-for-7 with three doubles off Kennedy.

• Zimmermann beat the Royals in their only meeting in 2013, tossing 7 2/3 innings of two-hit ball with seven strikeouts at Kauffman Stadium in Washington's win.

Salvy's 5-RBI night leads Royals past Tigers

Catcher Salvador Perez doubled and homered and drove in a career-high five runs as the Royals held off the Tigers, 8-6, on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Perez doubled in two runs in the third, then blasted a three-run homer off reliever and former Royal Blaine Hardy that gave the Royals an 8-2 lead.

"I didn't know [it was a career high] until after the game," Perez said. "It felt really good."

Added manager Ned Yost: "Salvy had a great night. Big three-run homer."

Right-hander Yordano Ventura started for the Royals and survived five innings, giving up six hits and two runs while walking three and striking out six.

Shane Greene had command issues and was chased with one out in the fifth. He gave up six hits and walked four, while being charged with seven earned runs.

"Leadoff walks, two-out walks, they all come back and haunt you," catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Aggressive sends: Royals third-base coach Mike Jirschele tested Tigers left fielder Justin Upton early twice, and it got the Royals' offense going. In the second inning, Jarrod Dyson, just off the disabled list, blooped a single to left and Jirschele sent slow-running Kendrys Morales from second base. The throw from Upton beat Morales easily, but the ball skipped past Saltalamacchia. In the third inning, Perez shot a double down the line in left with runners on first and second. Jirschele sent Gordon, who had been on first, home, and Gordon easily beat Upton's errant throw.

"Jirsch had some really good sends," Yost said.

Saltalamacchia homers again: Saltalamacchia couldn't handle Upton's throw home in the second inning, helping the Royals build their lead, but he handled Danny Duffy's breaking ball in the seventh to try to bring the Tigers back. Saltalamacchia's three-run home run, a 423-foot drive to straightaway center field according to Statcast™, was his third homer in as many games, and his fifth this season.

Herrera puts out fire: Royals reliever Joakim Soria inherited an 8-5 lead in the eighth but quickly got into trouble with two hits and a walk around a strikeout. In came Kelvin Herrerato face Miguel Cabrera, and Herrera promptly struck him out on three straight sliders. Herrera plunked Victor Martinez in the right knee with a slider, forcing in a run, making it 8-6. But Herrera then got J.D. Martinez to pop out.

"Quite frankly, [Soria] is having hard luck," Yost said. "Every ground ball is finding a hole against him."

Herrera and Cabrera matched up in a classic 10-pitch duel at Kauffman Stadium last May, and Herrera won it with a 98-mph fastball for strike three. This time, Herrera went all sliders.

"I remembered that at-bat last year," Herrera said through interpreter Pedro Grifol. "I thought he would be looking for [fastball] again. I thought I would change it up with the slider, maybe get the ground ball. ... He's a great hitter."

Traffic jam for Cabrera: Longtime Royals nemesis Miguel Cabrera, flummoxed for most of the evening by Ventura's changeup, put the Tigers on the scoreboard in the fifth inning with a two-run double into the right-field corner off Ventura's fastball, atoning for a bases-loaded opportunity squandered with a strikeout in the third.

Cabrera later struck out with the bases loaded in the eighth for his fourth punchout of the night, just the fourth time he's fanned that many times in a big league game.

"When you're swinging at balls, that means you make a good pitch," Cabrera said.

QUOTABLE
"It means the world to me." -- Teresa Thaman, cancer patient from Joplin, Mo., on getting to meet Perez, her favorite player, before Tuesday's game.

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Saltamacchia became the first catcher in Tigers history to hit five home runs in the team's first 12 games of a season. He's the first Tigers catcher with a three-game homer streak since Alex Avila in August 2011.

WHAT'S NEXT
Tigers: Jordan Zimmermann, owner of 13 consecutive scoreless innings to begin his Detroit tenure, gets his first taste of the Tigers-Royals rivalry in the second game of the series Wednesday night at 7:15 p.m. ET. Zimmermann -- then with the Nationals -- tossed 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball at Kansas City in his only meeting with the Royals in 2013.

Royals: Right-hander Ian Kennedy gets the nod in Game 2 of the series in a 6:15 p.m. CT start on Wednesday. Kennedy has dazzled in his first two starts, both wins, posting a 0.66 ERA.

Rising stars Salazar, Walker meet in Cleveland

Danny Salazar and Taijuan Walker, two of the American League's harder-throwing young right-handers, square off Wednesday at Progressive Field in the middle game of a three-game set between the Indians and Mariners.

Salazar, 26, enjoyed a breakout 2015 when he went 14-10 with a 3.45 ERA and 195 strikeouts and 53 walks in 185 innings, and he's been even better his first two starts this season with a 2-0 record and a 0.79 ERA.

Walker, 23, throws similar mid-90s heat and also is coming off his first full year as a Major League starter. Walker overcame a slow start in 2015 to post an 11-8 record and a 4.56 ERA with 157 strikeouts and 40 walks in 169 2/3 innings.

Walker has yet to earn a decision in two starts this year, but he has posted a 2.25 ERA. At 6-foot-4, 235 pounds, he possesses the physical tools to be regarded as a potential rising star like Salazar, but manager Scott Servais says these things take time.

"Everybody sees the talent Taijuan brings, the athleticism, the upside," Servais said. "You can dream real big. In the big leagues, it's about performance."

Walker is making his third career start against the Indians, having gone 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA in a pair of outings against them last year. Walker threw eight shutout innings with two hits, no walks and eight strikeouts in a 2-1 win in Seattle in May, then allowed one run on eight hits in six innings in a 9-3 victory at Progressive Field in June.

Salazar took a no-decision in his only previous start against the Mariners, a 6-3 win for the Indians last May at Safeco Field when he gave up three runs on four hits in 5 1/3 frames.

Things to watch in this game

• Indians right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall, who has been on the 15-day disabled list with a left wrist injury, is expected to be activated on Wednesday and could be in the lineup for the first time this season. The Indians must make a corresponding move to open a spot on the 25-man roster.

• Outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, who played the first four seasons of his Major League career with Cleveland from 2005-08, likely will be limited to pinch-hitting duties in this series for Seattle, as he's in a platoon situation in right field and the Tribe has all right-handed starters. But Gutierrez has performed extremely well in part-time duties for the past two seasons -- batting .283 with a .932 OPS and 15 home runs in 191 at-bats -- since spending a year out of baseball dealing with his ankylosing spondylitis condition.

• Kyle Seager and Robinson Cano rank among the top five in batting average among all hitters who've had at least 100 plate appearances against Indians pitching since 2010. Seager came into the series first on that list with a .380 average (46-for-121), while Cano was fifth at .354 (56-for-158).

Patient vs. wild Miley, Indians reward Carrasco

Right-hander Carlos Carrasco worked into the seventh inning and kept the Mariners' bats at bay in a 3-2 victory for the Indians on Tuesday night at Progressive Field.

Carrasco picked up his second win of the season for Cleveland after holding Seattle to one run on four hits in 6 1/3 innings. The big righty struck out five, walked three and allowed only a solo home run to Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager.

"Every start, I just take a little bit from there. I kind of learn a little bit," said Carrasco, who is 2-0 with a 2.79 ERA on the season. "Sometimes you have to make an adjustment. That's what I did. I was trying to make my pitches."

It was a solid enough showing to support the Tribe's work against Seattle left-hander Wade Miley, who represented the seventh southpaw Cleveland has faced in its first 11 games.

Miley exercised solid damage control before losing his command in the fourth inning. Miley issued four walks, including two with the bases loaded, in that decisive frame. The southpaw ended with two strikeouts, and he was charged with three runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.

"I lost it. I don't know what happened," Miley said of his fourth-inning control issues. "I obviously didn't feel good going in, but I was able to make some pitches and got some ground balls early. But in that fourth inning, I just got to thinking -- something I don't do a whole lot -- and got mechanical and really lost it. That game is 100 percent on me. I have to do a better job to minimize right there."

• Facing another lefty, Tribe able to scratch out win

Beyond the run-scoring walks in the fourth -- one each for Rajai Davis and Francisco Lindor -- Mike Napoli contributed an RBI double off Miley. That two-base hit came with two outs in the third, scoring Lindor to give Cleveland an early 1-0 lead.

Indians closer Cody Allen allowed one run in the ninth, but that was as far as Seattle's final push went. Allen sealed the win and notched his fourth save of the year.

"I feel like we've played some pretty good baseball," Allen said of Cleveland's early-season showing. "We've played good baseball against good teams."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Triple double: Miley gave up eight hits in the first three frames, but he limited the damage to just one run by inducing a trio of double-play grounders. The biggest was a 5-4-3 twin killing by Collin Cowgill in a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the second. But Miley also got Napoli on a hard grounder to Seager with runners on first and second to end the first. He then wiped out a leadoff single by Davis in the third when Jason Kipnis drove a shot right up the middle, where shortstop Ketel Marte was standing right behind the bag while playing Kipnis perfectly with the shift.

Walk this way: Miley entered the fourth inning with no walks in 15 innings on the season, but that streak came to a crashing halt. With one out, the Mariners' lefty issued back-to-back free passes to Juan Uribe and Cowgill to load the bases. Miley then walked Davis and Lindor with the bags full to force home a pair of runs. The starter was pulled after throwing 20 balls in a 36-pitch span in the inning.

"It was everything," Miley said. "I wish I could have found a pitch I could throw over the plate. I tried 'em all, they just weren't going. They didn't want any part of it. And I started rushing. I just have to be better. Point blank, I have to be better at the end of the day."

Making progress at Progressive: Seager came in batting .119 and riding an 0-for-17 slump, but the third baseman has a history of hitting in Cleveland. That held true again as he went 2-for-4 and launched a homer in the sixth on a 1-0 changeup from Carrasco. Seager now has four home runs and is hitting .418 (28-for-67) in 17 games at Progressive Field.

"It goes like that sometimes," Seager said. "It's not necessarily like a launching pad. It's a decent-sized park. It's a really nice park. Thankfully I've been able to do that." More >

Feel the glove: Lindor and Napoli each turned in a highlight-reel play in the win for Cleveland. In the fifth, Lindor went into the hole at short to snag a grounder from Norichika Aoki. Lindor made a backhand grab and jumping throw to narrowly beat the runner at first.

In the sixth, Napoli made a diving play to snare a sharply hit grounder from Robinson Cano. The first baseman recovered in time to flip the ball to Carrasco at the bag for an impressive out.

"You don't see that play too often in the hole any more," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "And Nap has been good and continues to be. When you look at him, I'm not sure you realize how good he can move. He's into the game and it's been fun to watch."

CHECKING ON CARRASCO
Twice during Tuesday's win, Francona and an Indians trainer met with Carrasco on the mound. It stemmed from a play in the third inning, when the pitcher ran to cover first base and slightly rolled his ankle upon reaching the bag. After Napoli's diving play in the sixth, Francona thought he noticed Carrasco limping again. After the game, both Francona and Carrasco downplayed the issue.

QUOTABLE
"It's still early and Wade has a lot of track record and I certainly like having him out there and trust him. But he's frustrated right now. He's better than that." -- Mariners manager Scott Servais, after Miley fell to 0-2 with an 8.04 ERA in his first three starts

"That's a tough play, especially with a speedy guy. But, he knew the runner, he knew what he had to do. His exchange was really quick and he made a nice play. He's capable of doing that kind of stuff. It's nice seeing it." --Napoli, on Lindor's play in the fifth

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
The Indians went 4-for-9 with three walks with runners on base against Miley. In his first three games, the new Seattle starter has allowed opponents to hit .467 (14-for-30) with runners on base.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW
In the first inning, Kipnis chopped a pitch up the middle, where Marte gloved the ball and made a quick throw to first for what was initially ruled an out by first-base umpire John Tumpane. Francona challenged the call, which was overturned following a replay review lasting one minute, 39 seconds. Kipnis was awarded an infield single on the play.

WHAT'S NEXT
Mariners: Taijuan Walker (0-0, 2.35 ERA) makes his third start of the season as Seattle continues its three-game series at Progressive Field on Wednesday at 3:10 p.m. PT. The 23-year-old right-hander was 2-0 with one run allowed in 14 innings in two starts against the Indians last year.

Indians: For Game 2 of this three-game set with the Mariners on Wednesday at 6:10 p.m. ET, the Indians will give the ball to right-hander Danny Salazar (2-0, 0.79 ERA). Through two outings this season, Salazar has piled up 16 strikeouts against six walks in 11 1/3 innings. He struck out nine in six shutout innings in a win over the Rays in his last turn.

Aces Sale, Richards to face off in Chicago

White Sox ace Chris Sale has dominated the Angels, especially in his two starts against them at U.S. Cellular Field.

Given the way this four-game series started, the Sox are hoping for another strong outing from Sale when he opposes Angels ace Garrett Richards on Wednesday.

The White Sox 7-0 loss Monday strained the bullpen after starter Carlos Rodon was bounced after only one-third of an inning.

Sale, though, is 2-0 with a 1.10 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings against the Angels at home, including a one-hitter May 12, 2013. This season, Sale is 3-0 with a 2.35 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 23 innings.

Richards enters with an 0-2 mark and 3.57 ERA this season. He will have the benefit of facing a White Sox lineup that entered Tuesday hitting a combined .158 over the team's past three losses.

"You go through three games like this, it can get overblown in a way," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "Guys are fine. You just need to them to do things that are going to help you win the game, and you're going to be all right."

Three things to know about this game

• White Sox hitters have a combined 71 at-bats against Richards. The only player to homer is Jose Abreu, who is 4-for-6 with one home run and four RBIs in his career off the righty.

• Angels sluggers Mike Trout and Albert Pujols are a combined 5-for-28 (.179) against Sale.

• Richards has a 4.29 ERA in eight appearances against the White Sox, including two starts. In those starts, he went 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA (five earned runs in 15 innings).

Latos dominant as White Sox blank Angels

Matt Latos allowed two hits in 6 1 /3 scoreless innings and was supported by home runs from Todd Frazier and Jose Abreu in the 5-0 White Sox victory over the Angels on Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

Latos improved to 3-0, while his ERA dropped to 0.49. The right-hander, who has yielded six hits in 18 1/3 innings, helped the White Sox end their three-game losing streak.

"Perfect. He did a great job," said White Sox catcher Dioner Navarro of his friend and winning pitcher. "He did exactly what we needed him to do, especially us using the 'pen the way we did. We needed Matty to go long and he did an outstanding job."

• Command, deceptive delivery keys to Latos' success

Frazier, who was mired in a 2-for-23 slump over his last six games, connected on a 3-1 pitch from Angels starter Matt Shoemaker to lead off the second and produce his third long ball. Abreu, who had a 3-for-26 quagmire of his own, drove out the first pitch from Shoemaker in the fourth for home run No. 3.

"I know that all of the effort we have been putting in showed today," said Abreu through interpreter Billy Russo. "Probably today is the start of what we can do on the offense."

Latos held the Angels hitless until one out in the fifth, when Carlos Perez rolled an infield single up the middle. He walked three, struck out five and gave way to Matt Albers after throwing 101 pitches. Shoemaker gave up two runs over 6 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking one.

Albers extended his scoreless innings streak to 30 over 27 appearances. That streak dates back to Aug. 5, 2015. In the eighth, Melky Cabrera added a two-run triple and Brett Lawriedrove him in with a single to give the White Sox some breathing room.

"I don't think he was doing anything special," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Latos. "He was obviously hitting his spots. We had some chances and he made some pitches to get out of jams. He just pitched a good game for those guys. Outside of the first inning, when we had a couple walks and had a chance, we didn't get too many good looks at him."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Eaton fires a strike: Adam Eaton's throwing arm seems to be back at full strength after offseason shoulder surgery. Andrelton Simmons tried to test that arm on C.J. Cron's single to right with one out in the seventh, but Eaton nailed him at the plate with a perfect throw to Navarro.

"I have to give all the credit to Navvy. He did a heck of a job letting it get deep," Eaton said. "It was a heck of a tag. All the credit goes to him. You can get it there, but definitely catching the ball the way he did and holding on to it with the guy screaming down the line, a lot of credit goes to him and great overall win for the team."

"I messed up by kind of peeking to see if the ball went through," Simmons said. "That split-second might have cost us that run. So that one was on me."

Stargazing: The Angels' two biggest stars, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, have mostly been held in check early on. The two have combined to bat just .194, notching 20 hits in 103 at-bats. On Tuesday, they each went 0-for-3 with a walk. The Angels' offense is not deep enough to sustain long stretches of ineffectiveness from those two players.

"I know what I'm doing wrong," Trout said. "Last couple of games, I created a bad habit. I'm just jumping forward. My head's moving. When the pitch is coming, it's not letting me recognize the pitch. I just have to stay back, trust my hands. We're working on it." More >

Missed chance: With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, the White Sox had a chance to pad their lead. But Avisail Garcia -- hitting .156 -- fouled off a hittable 1-0 changeup and eventually popped out to right.

Shoe deals: Aside from the two solo shots, Shoemaker turned in another encouraging start, five days after one-hitting the A's through six innings. The 29-year-old right-hander gave up just four other hits and didn't give up any other runs, putting his ERA at 4.70.

"Obviously I wanted to go out there and win, but [it's a] long season," Shoemaker said. "I felt really good. Executing pitches, mixing it up."

QUOTABLE
"I go out there every fifth day and I think that nobody can touch me. That's the way you've got to look at it." -- Latos

"Everybody wants to do well. They want their average to be up, but he comes to the park to win games first and whatever he can do to help is what he's doing." -- White Sox manager Robin Ventura, on Frazier

SIMMONS STREAKING
Simmons hit a one-out double near the left-field line in the seventh, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games, the longest by any player this season. Simmons, who went 3-for-4 on Monday, is batting .278.

REPLAY REVIEW
Umpires ruled that fan interference caused Cabrera to drop Cliff Pennington's foul popup at the start of the eighth and did not overturn the call via replay, prompting the Angels to lose their challenge and enraging Scioscia. Cabrera appeared to drop the ball on his own.

"I still don't know why they didn't reverse that," Scioscia said. "The ball was dropped before the fan got anywhere near it. There was nothing that blocked his ability to get the ball, didn't block his view. He dropped the ball. I don't even know if he hit the fan's hand or not. He just dropped the ball."

SAVE THAT BASEBALL
The two perfect innings thrown by Nate Jones resulted in his first career save.

WHAT'S NEXT
Angels: Garrett Richards takes the mound Wednesday for the third of a four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field, with first pitch set for 11:10 a.m. PT. Richards has struck out 19 in 17 2/3 innings, getting charged with only seven earned runs. But the hard-throwing right-hander remains winless.

White Sox: On Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. CT, Chris Sale will try to duplicate his complete-game masterpiece thrown in front of numerous friends and family members Friday night against the Rays in St. Petersburg. The lefty struck out nine and didn't issue a walk during his two-hit shutout. Sale one-hit the Angels at home in 2013.

Resilient Crew shrugs off Twins' late rally

After seeing the Twins pull even with three-run eighth, the Brewers regrouped in the ninth inning on Tuesday afternoon at Target Field, jumping ahead for good on Scooter Gennett's RBI single en route to a 6-5 win.

Yadiel Rivera sparked the rally against closer Kevin Jepsen with a one-out double to right-center field. Center fielder Byron Buxton bobbled the ball off the wall, allowing Rivera to reach third. With the infield in, Gennett roped a grounder to left to score Rivera.

"That hit that 'Yadi' got was huge," Gennett said, referring to Rivera. "It's not easy coming off the bench and being able to drive a ball like that into the wind."

"We had a lot of good things happen today," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "A lot of guys helped out. That's a good win."

The Twins struggled offensively until breaking out for three runs in the eighth to tie the game.Byung Ho Park crushed a solo homer to left -- his second deep fly in as many days and his team-leading fourth of the year -- before Eddie Rosario connected on a pinch-hit two-run homer to tie it at 5.

"We try to look for positives, and we stayed with the game," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "We were able to bounce back and get it even heading into the ninth. So it was a nice rebound after the White Sox series to finish with a decent homestand [and win four of five.]"

Brewers right-hander Wily Peralta, who entered 0-3 with a 10.13 ERA, showed some improvement, allowing two runs on five hits and four walks over five-plus innings and retiring 10 batters in a row at one point. He loaded the bases with no outs in the first two innings but escaped relatively unscathed both times, allowing one run in each frame.

Twins right-hander Ervin Santana went five innings, surrendering five runs (two earned) on five hits and three walks. He gave up two runs in the first on a single by Ryan Braun and a sacrifice fly by Chris Carter. It unraveled for the Twins and Santana in the fifth, starting with an error by right fielder Miguel Sano with one out. The trouble snowballed from there, asJonathan Lucroy gave the Brewers a lead with an RBI double before Carter added another sac fly and a passed ball by John Ryan Murphy brought home another run.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Trouble for Thornburg: Park and Rosario connected against a Brewers reliever who had been untouched so far this season. Tyler Thornburg had been unscored upon in his first five appearances, surrendering only two hits. He has also stranded three inherited runners, including a pair in the seventh inning on Tuesday.

"That's what you want to do as a team, pick each other up; that's what we did today," Gennett said. "Obviously, it's a rarity for [Thornburg] to have an outing like that."  More >

Sano misplays sinking liner: The Twins know Sano is facing a steep learning curve with his move to right field, but his inexperience cost them in the Brewers' go-ahead three-run fifth. With one out, Gennett hit a sinking liner to right, but it hit off Sano's glove for an error. The Brewers went on to score three unearned runs after Sano's missed catch.

"It was a mistake on a low line drive," Sano said. "I lost it in the fans. I tried to stop it, but it was too late. But I'm not trying to make an excuse. It was a mistake. But it won't be my first one or my last one."  More >

Good and bad: Brewers Rule 5 Draft pick Colin Walsh had an eventful afternoon, beginning with a double leading off the game that set up Milwaukee's first run and marked his first Major League hit after an 0-for-10 start. But Walsh was partly responsible when a run got away an inning later, as he misfired a throw home on a potential double-play bouncer, extending the inning before the Twins tied the game at 2. Still, Walsh savored celebrating with teammates after the game.

"It's nice that it's finally done," Walsh said. "It's a little harder when you're not playing every day, because 10 at-bats is three bad games [for a starter]. On the bench, it's 2 1/2 weeks. ... Hopefully, there are a lot more hits coming."

Twins can't capitalize early: The Twins scored their first run on a double-play grounder hit by Sano in the first, then scored in the second on an RBI groundout from Eduardo Nunez, but considering the bases were loaded each time, the unfinished rallies left a sense of disappointment. The Twins have yet to record a hit with the bases loaded this year, having gone 0-for-9.

QUOTABLE
"Each start, I've been feeling better and better. I think I'm getting closer and closer. ... It's not easy when you're struggling, but you have to keep making pitches." -- Peralta, who bounced back nicely after laboring over the first two innings

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Rosario's pinch-hit homer was the first for the Twins since Sano hit one against the Royals on Sept. 9, 2015. It was the only pinch-hit homer of the year for Minnesota last season.

WHAT'S NEXT
Brewers: The teams shift their Border Battle to Miller Park for two more games beginning on Wednesday, when Jimmy Nelson will take the mound for Milwaukee beginning at 7:10 p.m. CT. Nelson is 3-for-3 this season in producing quality starts and has held opposing hitters to a .176 average.

Twins: Left-hander Tommy Milone will get the starting nod for Minnesota, looking to shake off a slow start. He's 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA through two starts.