MINNEAPOLIS -- Willi Castro’s first big league hit looked like it was going to be a home run until it hit near the top of the high wall in right at Target Field. It was a 112-mph screamer of a leadoff double that set up his sixth-inning run on a Victor Reyes single, with Reyes pulling a move out of The Matrix to elude a tag for rounding too far off first base.

“I thought it was out for a second,” the 22-year-old admitted. “When I saw it came back, I just kept running.”

It wasn’t enough to get the Tigers back to even in their eventual 8-5 loss to the Twins at Target Field, but it was enough for them to keep competing Saturday night against the American League Central leaders. On a night when Detroit neared the end of a 10-game, three-city trip against teams currently holding playoff spots, competing with the kids means a lot.

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“I think these guys are kind of feeling like they can do this,” manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game. “They're not backing down, and it's not the same-old, same-old. Hopefully, we can continue that.”

If the Tigers’ direction for the stretch wasn’t already clear before Castro’s flight landed in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon, bringing him to the big leagues for the first time, it became clear with Saturday’s lineup. Castro was the third member of the Tigers' starting lineup Saturday night to make his Major League debut within the past month, joining Jake Rogers and Travis Demeritte. Dawel Lugo and Harold Castro made their big league debuts last year but still qualify as rookies. Ronny Rodriguez and Brandon Dixon also debuted last year and have less than a year of big league experience.

Miguel Cabrera and Reyes were the only Tigers starters Saturday with a full season in the Majors, and Reyes only had it because he was a Rule 5 Draft pick last year. This is the next phase of the Tigers’ rebuild, and it’s gradually creeping in.

And yet, for the first half of Saturday’s game, Detroit looked like it was going to throw another disruption into the Twins’ division lead. Rodriguez barely missed what would’ve been his second grand slam in as many nights, but settled for a go-ahead sacrifice fly. Lugo homered and later slid around a tag at the plate to turn a second run out of a Reyes RBI single with runners at first and second.

Lugo and Reyes escaped rundowns to stretch the play into a second run.

“It was a close play, but he didn’t tag me,” Lugo said through translator Carlos Guillen. “I knew it was going to be close. I did my best to reach out to home plate.”

Had he been tagged, it might have been foolhardy. Instead, it was the kind of high-risk, high-reward baserunning that Gardenhire used to torment opponents here when he managed the Twins. With Willi Castro now up, the Tigers are getting closer to the kind of lineup Gardenhire can use to bring back some of that style.

“We’ve got guys now that can do those things,” he said. “I love to see that kind of baseball. Try to force the team to have to make good plays to get you out. I’m excited when that stuff happens. I’ve said all along we’re going to get there. We’re going to get there with a team that can do those things. The Royals have a bunch of guys that do that stuff, and [the Twins] can really run around the bases pretty good.

“I’ve always enjoyed that part of baseball, forcing the issue, trying to take the extra bases. You’re going to make some outs, and people are going to say, ‘Oh boy, that wasn’t a good out.’ But I don’t know about that, because when it puts it in their mind that we’re going to be hauling around the bases, I like that stuff.”

The Tigers had a 4-1 lead as Edwin Jackson, who looked far younger than his 35 years with his Players’ Weekend cleats that featured Peppa Pig and Patrick Star for his kids, took the mound for the bottom of the fifth inning. Two doubles, two infield singles -- one of them from 39-year-old Nelson Cruz -- and a Miguel Sano three-run homer later, the Twins had a lead, sending Jackson (3-7) to his second consecutive loss.

“I left a slider up that Sano made me pay for,” Jackson said. “That’s what the game came down to, making that pitch.”

On many other nights this summer, the game would’ve gotten away from the Tigers from there. But Willi Castro’s expert read on Reyes’ sixth-inning single brought them back within a run. Even after Cave’s two-run home run, his third homer of the series, Willi Castro’s leadoff single and Lugo’s walk brought the tying run to the plate against Sergio Romo with nobody out in the eighth. Romo and Taylor Rogers retired Detroit’s final six batters from there.

The Tigers lost, but they were interesting, and they were energetic. The way this summer has unfolded, it’s progress.

“There’s energy here,” Jackson said. “You can see the potential for sure. I feel like the more these guys play with each other, the more the camaraderie will come, and the more everybody will continue to jell. But these guys have some energy. It’s electric what they can do.”