The Twins planned to use an opener both to cause matchup issues for the Detroit Tigers, first throwing a righty and then a lefty, and to manage rookie Connor Prielipp’s workload.

It worked.

Though Morris labored through a 29-pitch first inning and gave up a run, Prielipp more than did his part, throwing five scoreless innings while the Twins’ offense exploded for the second straight night in a 15-2 victory at Target Field.

Royce Lewis and catcher Ryan Jeffers each hit a three-run home run in a 10-run sixth inning, and Kody Clemens tied the game 1-1 with a solo homer in the first inning off Tigers starter Troy Melton.

“Melton’s got good stuff, and we just continued to add on,” Shelton said. “I think if you look down our lineup, everybody contributed in some way.”

Lewis had a team-leading three hits, drove in three runs. Jeffers, Luke Keaschall and Kaelen Culpepper all had a pair of hits, with Jeffers and Culpepper driving in three runs and Keaschall two.

Clemens, Trevor Larnach, Lewis, Walker Jenkins and Josh Bell each scored a pair of runs as the Twins overwhelmed the Tigers again after winning 11-1 on Monday.

“Top to bottom, we can handle anything,” Culpepper said. “Just a bunch of dogs ready to handle whatever, out there having fun, playing our game and moving on to the next.”

Prielipp allowed just three hits, striking out five. It was the first scoreless outing of his career and came after an August during which he gave up 23 runs in 26? innings (7.76 earned-run average).

“To see his stuff play the way it is, with the velocity — I was pleased with the breaking balls today,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I thought he did a nice job with execution of the breaking balls. … It’s a unique situation, having to come in, in the second inning, and I thought he handled it extremely well.”

Prielipp topped 100 big-league innings pitched this season, a milestone for a pitcher with an extensive injury past. He also has thrown 18? minor league innings this season.

“With my injury history, to be able to get over 100 innings and still be pitching is great,” he said.

Clemens tied the game with his 24th home run of the season in the bottom of the first, the score remained knotted until the fifth. It was a lucky break that helped the Twins (67-72) put some distance between themselves and the Tigers (63-75).

With a pair of runners on, Jenkins hit a groundball toward shortstop John Peck. Peck threw home, and the Tigers caught Trevor Larnach in a rundown. But after chasing him back toward third, Gold Glove Award-winning catcher Dillon Dingler threw the ball away, and both Larnach and Royce Lewis came around to score as the ball rolled into foul territory in left field.

“Everyone in this league does a really good job of making it look easy.

And then, when you see plays like that happen, it’s almost obviously Little League-esque,” Lewis said. “They happen to everybody, man, so it’s just nice to see it fall for us.”

One more run scored in the inning as Luke Keaschall’s double brought home Jenkins to put the Twins up by three.