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DETROIT — Third baseman Zach McKinstry accounted for six runs allowed in a bizarre 12th inning, as the Tigers dropped a lengthy 11-5 decision to the Minnesota Twins in the opening game of a doubleheader on Saturday.

Stuck in a 4-4 game in the 12th, the Twins took advantage of a bases-loaded walk and a three-run error by McKinstry at third, when Ryan Jeffers hit a grounder that went through his legs.

Then, needing pitchers on a long day when his club had already used five, Detroit manager AJ Hinch called on McKinstry to take the mound and help the Tigers get out of the inning. McKinstry proceeded to walk Manuel Margot before allowing a three-run homer to Matt Wallner.

“The 12th was a mess of an inning,” Hinch said. “The game, we had tons of opportunities. In the new rule of extra innings, when you hold the opponent in the top half of the inning to no runs, you’ve got to score. That’s where you have to put the game away. Those missed opportunities are missed wins.”

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli lauded Jeffers’ effort in what ended up being a 12-pitch at-bat that led to the error, before adding that “the ball was hit hard, and it took a funny hop. That’s why it kind of led to what it did. Obviously, that was a huge moment of separation for us.”

The Twins ultimately scored eight runs in extra innings, the most in franchise history since Aug. 1, 1970, which also came in a victory over the Tigers, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

“We had to do a lot of good, crisp baseball things today,” Baldelli said. “Our pitching led the way today. … It couldn’t have worked out much better.”

Detroit reliever Alex Lange (0-1), who loaded the bases before McKinstry’s error, took the loss, ending Detroit’s two-game winning streak. He walked Willi Castro to start the 12th and Christian Vazquez bunted, but first baseman Spencer Torkelson‘s throw to third was late, setting the stage for the error.

The Tigers finished Game 1 with 17 strikeouts.

“That’s not a recipe for more runs,” Hinch said. “We’re certainly more of a contact team than we’ve shown the last few games. We want that to be just a little bit of an anomaly. But it’s been the story the last couple of days.”

Tigers starter Kenta Maeda allowed two runs — one earned — on five hits in six innings against his old team. He struck out five without walking a batter. Jorge Alcala (1-0) picked up the win after allowing a run in the 12th.

Minnesota’s Joe Ryan struck out a career-high 12 batters in six innings but gave up three runs — one earned — on six hits and a walk.

The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the first when Kerry Carpenter homered. Martin’s RBI double made it 2-1 in the third.

Maeda had a chance at an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play in the fifth, but his throw sailed into center field to put runners on the corners. Santana grounded to first, but the Tigers again failed to turn the double play, allowing Martin to score the tying run from third.

Colt Keith‘s RBI single put the Tigers up 3-2 in the sixth, but Jeffers tied the game with a pinch-hit homer off Shelby Miller in the eighth. He also drove in Minnesota’s 11th-inning run with a single.

In the second game, Edouard Julien and Willi Castro homered as the Twins completed the doubleheader sweep with a 4-1 victory. McKinstry did not start the nightcap, but struck out swinging in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter.

“That’s a bad sign, if one game like that carried into the other,” Hinch said, when asked if Game 1’s disappointment led to Game 2’s result. “I don’t think it did. This team is too resilient. … I don’t think that’s what the DNA of this team is.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

The San Francisco Giants have sold a reported 10% stake in the team to private equity firm Sixth Street.

The team confirmed the deal Tuesday but not the amount of the investment, which was first reported Monday by the New York Times.

Sportico places the value of the franchise and its team-related holdings at $4.2 billion.

Sixth Street’s investment, reportedly approved by Major League Baseball on Monday, will go toward upgrades to Oracle Park and the Giants’ training facilities in Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as Mission Rock, the team’s real estate development project located across McCovey Cove from the ballpark.

Giants president and CEO Larry Baer called it the “first significant investment in three decades” and said the money would not be spent on players.

“This is not about a stockpile for the next Aaron Judge,” Baer told the New York Times. “This is about improvements to the ballpark, making big bets on San Francisco and the community around us, and having the firepower to take us into the next generation.”

Sixth Street is the primary owner of National Women’s Soccer League franchise Bay FC. It also has investments in the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and Spanish soccer powers Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

“We believe in the future of San Francisco, and our sports franchises like the Giants are critical ambassadors for our city of innovation, showcasing to the world what’s only made possible here,” Sixth Street co-founder and CEO Alan Waxman said in the news release. “We believe in Larry and the leadership team’s vision for this exciting new era, and we’re proud to be partnering with them as they execute the next chapter of San Francisco Giants success.”

Founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco, Sixth Street has assets totaling $75 billion, according to Front Office Sports.

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Ohtani ‘nervous’ in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

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Ohtani 'nervous' in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

TOKYO — Shohei Ohtani seems impervious to a variety of conditions that afflict most humans — nerves, anxiety, distraction — but it took playing a regular-season big-league game in his home country to change all of that.

After the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Opening Day 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani made a surprising admission. “It’s been a while since I felt this nervous playing a game,” he said. “It took me four or five innings.”

Ohtani had two hits and scored twice, and one of his outs was a hard liner that left his bat at more than 96 mph, so the nerves weren’t obvious from the outside. But clearly the moment, and its weeklong buildup, altered his usually stoic demeanor.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shohei nervous,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But one thing I did notice was how emotional he got during the Japanese national anthem. I thought that was telling.”

As the Dodgers began the defense of last year’s World Series win, it became a night to showcase the five Japanese players on the two teams. For the first time in league history, two Japanese pitchers — the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga — faced each other on Opening Day. Both pitched well, with Imanaga throwing four hitless innings before being removed after 69 pitches.

“Seventy was kind of the number we had for Shota,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It was the right time to take him out.”

The Dodgers agreed, scoring three in the fifth inning off reliever Ben Brown. Imanaga kept the Dodgers off balance, but his career-high four walks created two stressful innings that ran up his pitch count.

Yamamoto rode the adrenaline of pitching in his home country, routinely hitting 98 with his fastball and vexing the Cubs with a diving splitter over the course of five three-hit innings. He threw with a kind of abandon, finding a freedom that often eluded him last year in his first year in America.

“I think last year to this year, the confidence and conviction he has throwing the fastball in the strike zone is night and day,” Roberts said. “If he can continue to do that, I see no reason he won’t be in the Cy Young conversation this season.”

Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki went hitless in four at bats — the Cubs had only three hits, none in the final four innings against four relievers out of the Dodgers’ loaded bullpen — and rookie Roki Sasaki will make his first start of his Dodger career in the second and final game of the series Wednesday.

“I don’t think there was a Japanese baseball player in this country who wasn’t watching tonight,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers were without Mookie Betts, who left Japan on Monday after it was decided his illness would not allow him to play in this series. And less than an hour before game time, first baseman Freddie Freeman was scratched with what the team termed “left rib discomfort,” a recurrence of an injury he first sustained during last year’s playoffs.

The night started with a pregame celebration that felt like an Olympic opening ceremony in a lesser key. There were Pikachus on the field and a vaguely threatening video depicting the Dodgers and Cubs as Monster vs. Monster. World home-run king Saduharu Oh was on the field before the game, and Roberts called meeting Oh “a dream come true.”

For the most part, the crowd was subdued, as if it couldn’t decide who or what to root for, other than Ohtani. It was admittedly confounding: throughout the first five innings, if fans rooted for the Dodgers they were rooting against Imanaga, but rooting for the Cubs meant rooting against Yamamoto. Ohtani, whose every movement is treated with a rare sense of wonder, presented no such conflict.

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn was scratched from the lineup for their exhibition game on Tuesday because of soreness in his right wrist.

Winn was replaced by Jose Barrero in the Grapefruit League matchup with the Miami Marlins, with the regular-season opener nine days away. Winn, who was a 2020 second-round draft pick by the Cardinals, emerged as a productive everyday player during his rookie year in 2024. He batted .267 with 15 home runs, 11 stolen bases and 57 RBIs in 150 games and was named as one of three finalists for the National League Gold Glove Award that went to Ezequiel Tovar of the Colorado Rockies.

Winn had minor surgery after the season to remove a cyst from his hand. In 14 spring training games, he’s batting .098 (4 for 41) with 12 strikeouts.

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