MINNEAPOLIS — Catcher Carson Kelly hit a grand slam, center fielder Riley Greene crushed his 16th home run and finished a double shy of the cycle, and right-hander Keider Montero allowed two runs across 6⅓ innings in the third game of his MLB career.

It was a good win for the struggling Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers scored five runs in the third inning en route to a 9-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday in the second of three games at Target Field. The offense exploded for three triples and four home runs.

POWER SURGE: How Tigers' Riley Greene developed his power with new trainer Ben De La Cruz

Montero, who turns 24 on Saturday, put a runner on base in six of his seven innings, but he worked out of trouble time and time again to earn the first win of his career. He will stay in the starting rotation as the replacement for injured Casey Mize.

The Tigers (39-47) pulled away from the Twins in the third inning, when Kelly hit an elevated fastball from rookie right-hander David Festa for a grand slam to left field. He hit the grand slam after Gio Urshela's single, Colt Keith's single and Riley Greene's single.

Kelly's big swing put the Tigers ahead, 4-0.

It was the first grand slam of Kelly's career, spanning 514 games.

On the next pitch, Wenceel Pérez extended the Tigers' lead to 5-0 with a solo home run — his first homer since April 30 — to center field off Festa's middle-up changeup.

Festa, making the second start of his MLB career, allowed seven runs on nine hits and zero walks with six strikeouts, throwing 81 pitches. Three of the nine hits went for home runs.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Days of Roar" your go-to Detroit Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

Keider Montero shows promise

As the Tigers scored more than two runs, the rookie Montero — called up from Triple-A Toledo before Wednesday's game — worked his way through the Twins' lineup like an established veteran.

He had traffic on the bases in six of his seven innings from six hits, one walk and two hit-by-pitches, but he stayed calm.

In the first inning, Montero responded to Carlos Correa's two-out double by striking out Carlos Santana swinging with a slider below the strike zone. He retired three batters in a row after Jose Miranda's leadoff walk in the second inning.

Christian Vázquez put the Twins on the scoreboard with a solo home run off Montero's middle-middle fastball to open the third inning, making it 5-1. Ex-Tiger Willi Castro tried to keep the momentum going with an ensuing single, but Montero took care of the next three batters to strand the runner.

In the fourth, Montero worked around the first hit of Brooks Lee's MLB career — a two-out single into center field — by getting Vázquez to fly out to center field. He also avoided trouble after a leadoff hit-by-pitch in the fifth, thanks to a double play.

Montero sent down all three batters in the sixth inning.

The Twins didn't score again until the seventh inning, when Buxton drove a two-strike fastball to left-center and Lee flared a first-pitch slider into center for an RBI single, making it 7-2.

Montero then retired Vázquez for the first out in the seventh, ending his outing at 80 pitches. He generated eight whiffs on 36 swings — a 22.2% whiff rate — with five sliders, two curveballs and one changeup. He had four strikeouts.

Riley Greene looks for a cycle

The Tigers scored their next two runs in the fifth inning, taking a 7-2 lead.

Greene, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, demolished a down-and-in slider from Festa with a 111.8 mph exit velocity for a 427-foot two-run home run to right field.

The 23-year-old has 16 home runs in 85 games in 2024, his third MLB season, which matches his combined homer total across 192 games in 2022 and 2023.

Greene finished a double shy of the cycle, with a triple in the first inning, single in the third inning and home run in the fifth inning. He grounded out in the seventh inning.

Matt Vierling pushed the Tigers' lead to 9-2 with a two-run home run in the ninth inning against left-handed reliever Kody Funderburk. It was his career-high 11th homer in 76 games. He had 10 homers in 134 games last season.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show "Days of Roar" every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers deliver plenty of fireworks in 9-2 win over Minnesota