Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins: Final Score & Recap

The Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 3-1 at Target Field on April 9, 2026, a game the DiamondIQ model opened with a 54 percent home win probability that closed at 100 percent by the final out. Minnesota broke through first in the fourth inning on a Josh Bell home run off Jack Flaherty, a swing that shifted win probability 11.4 points in the Twins' favor and established the only margin either side would hold until the eighth. Detroit answered with a Colt Keith single in the top of the seventh off Garrett Acton that moved the needle 6.4 points toward the Tigers, trimming the deficit to 1-0 heading into the late innings, before the game turned decisively in Minnesota's half of the eighth.

The pivotal sequence came in the bottom of the eighth against Will Vest, when Brooks Lee delivered a single that registered a +29.4 percent win-probability swing, the largest single play of the game by a wide margin. That hit effectively ended any realistic path for Detroit. The inning also featured strikeouts by Trevor Larnach in the seventh and Kody Clemens in the eighth, costing the Twins a combined 13.9 win-probability points, though Minnesota's two-run eighth was ultimately more than enough cushion.

Lee finished as the top batter by WPA at +29.4 percent with a +1.5 RE24, while Bell matched that RE24 figure and posted a +10.5 percent WPA contribution. Austin Martin added a modest +4.1 percent WPA. On the pitching side, Mick Abel led all pitchers with a +27.6 percent WPA, followed by Tyler Holton at +12.2 percent and Flaherty, despite surrendering the Bell homer, at +11.8 percent. The DiamondIQ model favors Minnesota's pitching performance as the clearest driver of the outcome.