DETROIT, May 23 (UPI) -- Prince Fielder singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning Thursday, finishing off a Detroit rally that gave the Tigers a 7-6 win over Minnesota.
The Twins lost their ninth in a row, failing to protect a three-run lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.
Detroit scored three times in the seventh to create a 6-6 deadlock with Jhonny Peralta's double bringing home Fielder with the tying run.
The Tigers then took the lead in the eighth when a hit-and-run play worked to perfection.
Omar Infante opened the Detroit eighth with a single off Jared Burton (0-2) and after Torri Hunter sacrificed Infante to second Miguel Cabrera was intentionally walked.
That brought up Fielder and on a 2-1 pitch the runners were put in motion. Fielder hit a grounder to the left of second baseman Brian Dozier, who was moving to cover the base. Dozier stopped and tried to get back to field the grounder, but as he lunged for the ball it deflected off his glove into shallow right-centerfield.
No one could retrieve the ball in time to keep Infante from scoring and that stood up as the winning run.
Joaquin Benoit (1-0) picked up the win as the fourth of five Detroit pitchers. He worked the eighth inning and Justin Valverde came on in the ninth to nail down his fifth save.
Cabrera drove in three runs, two of them with a first-inning homer, and saw his batting average climb to .391.
Josh Willingham hit a three-run blast for the Twins and had four RBI overall.
