Torkelson homers twice against the Twins again, leading the Tigers to an 8-7 victory

MINNEAPOLIS — Spencer Torkelson homered twice against Minnesota for the second time in a week, and the Detroit Tigers survived a late scare for an 8-7 victory over the Twins on Wednesday.

Torkelson lifted Griffin Jax’s 1-1 sweeper into the left-field seats at Target Field to give the Tigers a 6-4 lead in the top of the seventh, giving the second-year first baseman his fourth career multi-homer game.

His previous one came last Wednesday against the Twins in Detroit.

Torkelson, who also homered Tuesday night and almost had a third in the ninth inning Wednesday, leads the Tigers with 20 home runs. He’s the seventh player in club history with that many during his age-23 season.

Relievers Beau Brieske, Tyler Holton, Alex Lange and Will Vest combined for 5 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Holton (2-2) earned the win with by striking out five in 2 1/3 perfect innings.

Jason Foley gave up back-to-back homers in the ninth, and Matt Wallner, who delivered Minnesota a victory Tuesday, had a drive that was caught on the left-field warning track.

Donovan Solano grounded into a double play to end the game.

Following their final game this season against divisional foe Detroit, the Twins (63-59) remain four games ahead of Cleveland for the AL Central lead. The Tigers — 8-5 against Minnesota in 2023 — are eight back of the Guardians.

Minnesota’s Kenta Maeda gave up three or fewer runs for a 10th straight outing, tying Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee for the longest active streak among AL starters. Maeda recorded six strikeouts and allowed three earned runs on seven hits, including Riley Greene’s two-run homer to the right-center field second deck in the top of the third inning.

Two batters later, Torkelson smacked Maeda’s first-pitch curveball into the left-field bleachers to make it 4-3.

Jax (5-7)…