MINNEAPOLIS -- Justin Verlanders curveball was snapping, Torii Hunters bat was clicking and the Detroit Tigers appeared to be creeping ever closer to locking up their third straight AL Central title. When their bullpen couldnt hold the lead against Minnesotas anemic offence, another chance to reduce their magic number went swirling down the drain. Josmil Pinto hit an RBI single in the 11th inning and the Twins overcame 12 strikeouts by Verlander to beat the Tigers 4-3 on Monday night. The Tigers led 3-0 in the eighth, but Jose Veras gave up RBI doubles to Eduardo Escobar and pinch-hitter Ryan Doumit. Brian Dozier led off the ninth with a tying homer against previously perfect closer Joaquin Benoit. Dozier opened the 11th with a single off Luke Putkonen (1-2) and advanced on a wild pitch. Pinto punched a single to right field to give manager Ron Gardenhire his 998th career victory. Verlander gave up six hits and walked three in six shutout innings for the Tigers, who entered needing two wins -- or one victory and a loss by idle Cleveland -- to lock up the division. "Obviously, its tough," Verlander said. "Were sitting here knocking on the door and every win counts. It was a tough pill to swallow, but thats the lovely thing about baseball. We come out here tomorrow and we have another day and another crack at a win." Anthony Swarzak (3-2) pitched the 11th for the win. Hunter had two doubles, a single and an RBI for Detroit. Miguel Cabrera had two hits and an RBI while moving gingerly on a sore groin that kept him out of Sundays loss to the White Sox. It was a rare stumble for Benoit, who has stabilized the shaky back end of the bullpen since becoming the full-time closer. He had converted 22 straight save chances this season. But the struggles by Veras caused manager Jim Leyland to go to his closer far earlier than he would have liked, and Benoit came on with one out in the eighth to try for a rare five-out save. "I dont even consider that a blown save because youre asking him to do an awful lot," Leyland said. "Hes been absolutely fantastic. Hes a very, very outstanding pitcher." After three straight underwhelming outings by his lofty standards, Verlander was back to his untouchable self against the overmatched Twins. With his curveball bending and his slider biting as well as they ever have, Verlander struck out the side in the second and third -- and the whiffs kept coming. "He looked like his old self," Dozier said. "His breaking ball was really moving and he was punching guys out." Five times Verlander got the Twins looking for strike three, four of them with wicked curveballs that froze the hitters. One of them buckled Chris Parmelees knees for his 10th strikeout of the game in the fourth inning. Verlander topped 200 strikeouts for the fifth straight year. "I think I had the best breaking ball Ive had all year," Verlander said. "It was really sharp. It was good. I was able to go to it when I wanted to and throw it for strikes." The right-hander had been tagged for 10 earned runs in his last three starts, a bothersome little skid as the playoffs approach. He also entered the night with a pedestrian 13-12 record and 3.66 ERA that is ordinary by his standards. Maybe an outing against the meagre Twins offence will be enough to get him back in the groove. It was Verlanders third double-digit strikeout game of the season, and first since he fanned 13 Pirates on May 27. Mike Pelfrey gave up one run on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks in six innings for the Twins. "The math doesnt change," Leyland said. "Somehow weve got to win two games." NOTES: Prince Fielder played in his 500th straight game. ... The Indians open a series against the White Sox in Cleveland on Tuesday. ... Twins OF Oswaldo Arcia was a late scratch when he bruised his right knee after running into the wall while chasing down a fly ball in batting practice. ... The Twins struck out at least 10 times for the 60th time this season. The previous team high was 26 in 2001. ... Tigers RHP Doug Fister (13-9, 3.71 ERA) will take the mound Tuesday night against Twins LHP Scott Diamond (6-11, 5.54). Where To Buy Cheap Jerseys .com) - The 12th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes continue a four-game homestand at Value City Arena on Wednesday night when they face off against the High Point Panthers in a non-conference matchup. Replica Jerseys China . The Red Sox maintained a share of the AL wild-card lead Tuesday night, using four home runs to beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-7 and set up a dramatic conclusion to the regular season. The skidding Red Sox were 6-19 this month before rebounding to edge the last-place Orioles. https://www.cheapjerseysreview.com/ . - A pitch clock will be used this season during minor league games at Triple-A and Double-A, but it has been ruled out for the major leagues this year. Wholesale Jerseys Online . Dane Dobbie had four goals and two assists, Karsen Leung had two goals and two assists, and Matthew Dinsdale scored two and helped on another for Calgary (6-3). Shawn Evans and Jeff Shattler had eight-point games with a goal and seven assists apiece, and Jon Harnett and Geoff Snider also scored. Cheap Jerseys For Sale . PETERSBURG, Fla.MINSK, Belarus -- Russia secured a quarterfinals berth at the ice hockey world championship with a 4-1 win over Latvia on Saturday to remain unbeaten. Russia outshot Latvia 43-15 in its fifth straight win. It leads Group B, with still two games to go, by six points from Latvia and Belarus. The United States and Finland are another point back. Also, Denmark upset the Czech Republic 4-3 in a penalty shootout, France prevailed in another penalty shootout to edge Norway 5-4, and host Belarus rallied to beat Germany 5-2. In late games, Slovakia topped Italy 4-1 and Switzerland downed Kazakhstan 6-2 to earn their second victories in Minsk in six games. Forward Viktor Tikhonov starred for Russia with two first-period goals and an assist. He tied it at 1 with a wrist shot, and scored on a power play to make it 3-1 with his sixth goal of the tournament. "We conceded a goal but then we showed our character and replied," Tikhonov said. "We have to play for 100 per cent the whole game." Sergei Shirokov and Sergei Kalinin also had a goal apiece. Miks Indrasis one-timed the puck past Russia goaltender Sergei Bobrovski to give Latvia an early lead. "The best thing is that we keep winnning," Kalinin said.dddddddddddd Mikkel Boedker netted a backhand in the penalty shootout to give Denmark its first victory over the Czech Republic at the worlds. "We stayed in the game. We stayed the course," Boedker said. "We kept battling and we got two late goals." Jaromir Jagr had a power play goal and set up Jakub Klepis, also on a power play, but the Czechs blew a 3-1 lead. Patrick Bjorkstrand force overtime with 53 seconds remaining in regulation. Stephane Da Costa scored the winning penalty in the shootout to lift France over Norway. Four teams -- the Czech Republic, France, Norway and Slovakia -- are tied for third in the eight-team Group A. Defending champion Sweden led, followed by Canada. The first four in each group advance to the quarterfinals. Antoine Roussel scored twice and Yorick Treille had one goal in a 51-second span in the second to lead Frances comeback, after Norway took a 2-0 lead with goals from Mats Trygg and Morten Ask. Mikhail Grabovski completed the comeback for Belarus against Germany with two goals in the third to thrill the sold-out Minsk Arena. Kai Hospelt and Alexander Barta gave the Germans a 2-0 first-period lead. ' ' 'Murphy were called out on strikes earlier in the game. Both took exception after Basner called out Travis dArnaud at-bat. It was the fourth career ejection for Wright and the first for Murphy. "Im not going to comment on the umpires. Im not going to get into any more trouble than Im already in. Ive said my peace down on the field and Im just going to leave it at that," Wright said. "We have each others backs. And when something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. There were some disagreements. Its frustrating," he said. Wilson got seven of his strikeouts on called strikes. "You cant really get a scouting report on the umpires and try to change too much with that. You have to pitch to the hitters," Wilson said. "But it wasnt like the guy had some crazy strike zone. Its just that they were up there looking for pitches that I wasnt throwing, which is why they took the strike three calls." During the singing "God Bless America" in the seventh-inning stretch, Mets manager Terry Collins stood next to Basner at home plate. The two could be seen chatting. The Angels came out swinging and got all three of their homers in a span of seven pitches. Trout drove his fourth of the season into the centre field trees with one out and Pujols hit his third into the left field bullpen. Ibanez, who hit a tying, three-run shot off closer Jose Valverde in the ninth inning Saturday night for his 2,000th career hit, connected against Colon before the Angels added another run on doubles by Kole Calhoun and Ian Stewart. Stewart later homered. NOTES: The Angels hit three straight homers for the first time since July 27, 2009, when Juan Rivera, Kendrys Morales and Mike Napoli did it. ... Colon was the first Mets pitcher to yield three in a row since June 8, 2012, at Yankee Stadium, when Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones connected against Johan Santana. China Shoes Wholesale . The Calgary skip fell 10-8 to Swedens Oskar Eriksson in semifinal action Saturday and will face Switzerlands Peter de Cruz for the bronze medal (Saturday at 10pm et/7pm pt on TSN2). China Shoes Free Shipping .Mila Kunis was a guest on Kimmel last night and revealed a surprising side of herself that comes out when she watches sports. It turns out screaming something vulgar at professional athletes is therapeutic for Kunis. https://www.chinashoesshop.com/ . In taking its goal tally to 99 in all competitions already this season, City delivered another demonstration of its lethal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round match at home to another second-tier team -- Watford. Cheap Shoes From China . -- Washington Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo is going to the Pro Bowl as a replacement for San Francisco 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks. Fake China Shoes .cas NHL Play of the Year showdown continues today with a man whos spent most of his career on highlight reels and a goalie actually "reaching back" for a save.PHILADELPHIA - The Boston Bruins are trying to determine whether 18-year-old rookie David Pastrnak has the physicality to remain on their roster.Now, they know he can score.Pastrnak scored his first two career NHL goals to lead the Boston Bruins to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.He skates well and puts teams on their heels with his speed, Boston coach Claude Julien said. Right now, its just, Is he strong enough? And does he have the durability to do that on a nightly basis in this league at the age of 18. Were evaluating him as each game goes on.Chris Kelly added a short-handed goal for Boston, which won its third straight.I thought we played well enough that we deserved to win today, Julien said.Claude Giroux scored for Philadelphia, which fell further out of the Eastern Conference playoff race. Jakub Voracek, who entered leading the NHL with 49 points, assisted Girouxs goal.Coach Craig Berube remained positive afterward.We did a lot of good things today and if we play like that well win a lot of games, he said.The Flyers lost goaltender Steve Mason to injury as he left 7:07 into the opening period with a lower body injury. Mason went down and appeared to clutch the back of his right knee after extending his right leg to save Craig Cunninghams shot.Mason, who was replaced by Ray Emery, has been battling an injury all week. He had an MRI on Monday and was questionable with a lower body injury for Tuesdays game against Ottawa but played in Tuesdays 2-1 shootout victory and again was in net in Thursdays 3-2 overtime victory over Washington.Berube didnt provide an update afterward as to the extent of time Mason might miss.Boston quickly took advantage of Masons absence when Pastrnak scored with 8:37 left in the first period. Zdeno Chara passed from behind the net to Torey Krug. Krugs shot from the left circle bounced off Emery to Pastrnak, who flipped it past Emery.It was the first career goal for Pastrnak, the youngest active NHL player who was appearing in his seventh game and second since being recalled from AHL Providence on Tuesday.ddddddddddddKrug) had a great shot and I got the rebound and just tried to hit the puck, Pastrnak said. It feels great.The tally ended a six-game road drought on the power play for the Bruins, who had been 0 for 14 on the man advantage in their previous six road games while extending Philadelphias struggles on the penalty kill. The Flyers entered the day last in the league by killing off 74.8 per cent of opponents power plays.Boston went up 3-0 with two goals in the third period.Pastrnak netted his second of the game 4:58 into the period. Pastrnak skated across the blue line, passed to David Krejci and then found an opening to the right of Emery. Krejci whipped a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Krejci, who one-timed it into the empty net as Emery was slow to move laterally.I just moved to where my skates go and he found me, Pastrnak said. It wasnt hard to score.It was the third career point for Pastrnak, who had an assist on Dec. 1 at Anaheim.Kelly took Loui Erikssons pass and beat Emery with a wrist shot on the glove side on a 2-on-1 short-handed break with 10:09 left.Giroux fired a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past Tuukka Rasks stick side with 5:47 remaining.It was too little too late for Philadelphia.We played hard and I thought the guys stayed with it all game, Berube said. Its disappointing for sure but we have to stay positive.Notes: Six-year-old Flyers fan Kohlsen Fisher met Giroux after the game. A video of Fishers negative reaction to receiving a Penguins jersey as a Christmas gift went viral. . Eriksson returned to the lineup after missing Thursdays win over New Jersey with an upper body injury. . Flyers D Nicklas Grossman (upper body) missed the first game of what is likely to be a three-week absence after getting hurt on Thursday. ' ' '