MINNEAPOLIS — The game was tight, and included an unexpected rally and a couple of clutch home runs. But in the end, the big winner of the Twins’ home finale for 2025 was a surprise: the Detroit Tigers.

Yes, the Twins avoided a four-game sweep to Cleveland, baseball’s hottest team, by rallying for a 6-2 victory at Target Field on Sunday. But the Guardians, who trailed Detroit by 15 1/2 games in July, were poised to claim a share of the AL Central lead for the first time since April if they could extend their 10-game winning streak to 11.

“It’s everything. The only thing we could do is be a roadblock to them,” said Simeon Woods Richardson, who didn’t give up a hit after the second inning in his five-inning start. “They’re striving, but they’ve still got to go through us. We had a long day [Saturday], but we came back and turned it around today.”

That, to put it delicately, was a bit of a surprise. The Guardians took a 2-0 lead before the Twins even batted, after all, and watched on the scoreboard as the Tigers fell behind against Atlanta on their way to losing 6-2, their sixth loss in a row and ninth in 10 games. Meanwhile, Cleveland was facing a Twins team that hadn’t scored in 21 consecutive innings, including back-to-back shutouts in Saturday’s doubleheader.

Byron Buxton, naturally, along with Kody Clemens, Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis made all of those trends meaningless.

“It’s not like your goal is to be a spoiler during the season, but if you get to the end of the year and you’re in position to go spoil other teams’ seasons, that’s what you’ve got to go do,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said before his team heeded his objective. “You’ve got to embrace it, go out there, play hard, and [win].”

Buxton dropped a two-out double just inside the right-field line in the third inning, and Clemens singled him home, ending the Twins’ scoreless streak at 23 innings.

Two innings later, Keaschall doubled to right, and Lee greeted reliever Matt Festa by rocketing a center-cut fastball 411 feet over the right-field wall, giving the Twins their first lead since Wednesday.

“The true turning point in the game,” Baldelli said.

“A cool little cherry on top for the homestand,” Lee said in agreement.

And in the seventh inning, at roughly the same moment as the Vikings scored their 48th point, the Twins reached a run total nearly as absurdly lopsided — six, their second-highest score in 13 games with the Guardians this year. It came when Clemens and Austin Martin singled, and Lewis hit the first pinch-hit home run of his career, a screaming line drive into the bleachers in left field.

Lewis turned toward the Twins dugout, screaming and hopping up and down in celebration, as he rounded first base. A couple of the Guardians visibly slumped in disappointment, their hopes of entering this week’s division-title showdown with Detroit as coequals in the standings dashed.

“I like beating the Guardians. … They’re a rival,” Lewis said. “Torii Hunter told me, ‘Leave the season spoiling some team’s chances.’ So to do that in what is my last home at-bat, at least of the season, it’s exciting.”

Baldelli said the pitching was worth being excited about, too. Woods Richardson gave up a home run to Steven Kwan on his third pitch of the game, then walked George Valera, who scored on Bo Naylor’s sacrifice fly. But the right-hander didn’t give up another run, nor did Kody Funderburk, Pierson Ohl, Cole Sands and Travis Adams in relief. Woods Richardson has a 3.00 ERA over four September starts, while Funderburk improved to 4-1 with a 1-2-3 sixth.

“It’s a great way to end things for all the fans that are here right now watching us play our last home game. The drama was there,” Baldelli said. “These games are going to decide who goes to the playoffs and potentially who wins the World Series and you want to put your best foot forward and go out there and not just compete but beat these teams when they’re putting everything on the line to try to get in. It’s a good motivation and it brings added energy to the games. Sim was feeding off of that.”

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