Kyle Gibson set a season-high with 7.1 strong innings and the bullpen held on for dear life as the Minnesota Twins prevailed with a 6-5 win over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night at Target Field. What started out as a 6-0 lead in the eighth inning quickly snowballed into a one-run win, but the Twins managed to even the series with the rubber game looming on Sunday afternoon to wrap up the 1987 World Series reunion weekend.

“Gibby was really good,” manager Paul Molitor said. “I don’t know if you want to call it his best start or whatever, but we talk about strike percentage a lot when things aren’t going well. It might have been his best percentage of throwing it over and first-pitch strikes. It started waning late, but I still thought he had good stuff.”

Gibson tossed seven shutout innings before encountering some turbulence in the eighth. Andrew Romine opened the inning with a liner to Eddie Rosario in left, followed by a single from Jose Iglesias and a walk to Ian Kinsler. After a mound visit, former Twins outfielder Alex Presley poked his third hit of the day — a ground-rule double into the stands in foul territory in left — on the next pitch to give the Tigers their first run of the day, and chase Gibson to the showers.

“Physically, I felt like I was trying to find it the whole time really,” Gibson said. “Just in the pen. Something in like the third inning talking to Castro just didn’t feel too good either. He did a great job of getting me through that one and calling the right pitch at the right time. They took some swings and missed some pitches they’d probably normally hit. Thankfully it worked out that way for me, and the defense made some great plays.”

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