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MINNEAPOLIS -- Rick Porcello kept up the starting pitching surge Detroit has been riding all season. Tom Rathman Youth Jersey . Prince Fielder came through with another clutch hit, and Jose Valverde even had a stress-free appearance to try to get back on track. This is the way the Tigers wanted to start the series in Minnesota. Fielder broke open a scoreless game with a two-run double in the sixth inning, the spark that Porcello and the Tigers used to beat the Twins 4-0 on Friday night. Despite his status as the afterthought of this stacked rotation behind Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez and Doug Fister, Porcello has shined in his last four appearances. He is 2-1 with 30 strikeouts in 27 innings and just 15 hits, five runs and four walks against him during that stretch. "Ive honestly really felt confident all year," Porcello said. "I like what Ive been working on, especially in the off-season going into spring training, and Im starting to get some good results from it now." Victor Martinez and Jhonny Peralta followed Fielders soaring drive with RBI doubles of their own, ending the night for Twins starter Scott Diamond (4-6). Even better for the Tigers was that the four-run cushion kept sputtering closer Jose Valverde out of a pressurized save situation. "He wanted to be back out there tonight, and he wasnt shy about it," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. Porcello (4-3) didnt need much relief. The right-hander breezed through seven scoreless innings, allowing just two singles and one double without a walk. He struck out five and gave the Tigers their 19th quality start (of at least six innings and three runs or less) in the last 20 games. "Porcello was unbelievable. The last couple starts, hes been doing great. The breaking ball and two-seamer hes throwing, its awesome," Valverde said. Diamond walked Austin Jackson, the leadoff man back in his familiar spot after he missed the last month because of a pulled left hamstring, with one out in that decisive sixth. Torii Hunter advanced Jackson with a groundout, and Miguel Cabrera was intentionally walked. "Diamond matched him for a long time there," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, lamenting the leadoff walk: "He got some balls up after that." Fielder made the Twins pay. "Hes done a terrific job of picking us up in that situation when its happened. Terrific job. Tonight, off a left-hander, thats really special," Leyland said. With one of those huge upper-cut swings, he smacked a 2-0 curveball high off the towering right-field wall to put the Tigers in front. Cabrera ran through the stop sign by third base coach Tom Brookens, whose arms were still straight up in the air as the big slugger chugged home without a throw. "Were a team that slugs it pretty good, and when we slug it pretty good we look pretty good," Leyland said. Valverde came in for the ninth after Drew Smyly and Joaquin Benoit collaborated on a scoreless eighth. Valverde walked Joe Mauer to start the inning, but Ryan Doumit followed with a double-play ground ball. Josh Willingham was grazed by a pitch, but Justin Morneau struck out looking to end the game. "Its great for me and great for my teammates to be on the mound and have my confidence again," said Valverde, who allowed 10 hits, seven runs and five homers over his last six appearances while blowing two of his five save opportunities. Valverde gave up a tying, two-run homer to Kansas Citys Lorenzo Cain with two outs in the ninth inning on Wednesday, a game the Tigers lost in the 10th. Detroits bullpen, the one glaring area of concern on this otherwise-championship-calibre club, has a 4-12 record with eight squandered saves in 22 chances. Leyland bristled at a question about whether Valverde was still the closer, angrily lacing his answer with expletives before eventually affirming the veteran right-handers status. "Were going to use Jose Valverde until we decide Jose Valverde can or cant do it or weve got somebody else better," Leyland said. The skipper tried to suggest too much attention has been fixated on his relievers, noting the Tigers have had some recent trouble scoring. While losing two of three to the Royals they had seven runs in 28 innings. But the Tigers still have the best batting average in baseball, at .281 entering the night. Diamond, who was replaced with two outs in the sixth, gave up five hits and two walks with just one strikeout. The six scoreless innings he pitched on June 2 fueled his lone victory of the last seven turns. That is also the only time in that span he finished six innings. NOTES: Valverde was warming up on the field before the game, working on the split-fingered fastball that has been hit hard lately. ... Willingham, the regular in left field, was the DH for the Twins for the fourth straight time to rest his sore knees as much as possible. ... Sanchez (6-5, 2.65 ERA) will pitch for the Tigers on Saturday against RH Samuel Deduno (2-1, 3.47 ERA) of the Twins. Sanchez took a no-hitter one out into the ninth inning the last time he faced the Twins, in Detroit on May 24. He sat out his previous start because of tightness in his shoulder. Kwon Alexander 49ers Jersey . -- Jaye Marie Green shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday to increase her lead to five strokes after the second round of the LPGA Tours qualifying tournament. Deebo Samuel Jersey . Colin Wilson had two goals and an assist, and Mike Fisher scored a goal and helped set up two others in the Predators 6-4 victory over the Red Wings on Monday night. http://www.49ersrookiestore.com/49ers-Dante-Pettis-Jersey/ . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A former Vanderbilt football player who encouraged his teammates to rape an unconscious female student was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison under a law requiring aggravated rape convicts to serve 100 percent of their time behind bars.After the hearing, prosecutors said they hoped the sentences handed down would send a message that people who commit these types of crimes on campus will be held accountable.Victims should know that there are people on their side -- whether police, prosecutors or judges- Assistant District Attorney Roger Moore said.Thats what I would like to see taken away from this -- that justice is going to be served, Moore said.Surveillance video showed Brandon Vandenburg helping to carry the woman into his dorm room, where testimony showed he handed out condoms to three of his teammates and egged them on. The 23-year-old former player also took cellphone videos of the June 2013 dorm room rape and emailed them to friends in California while the crime was ongoing.He was found guilty in 2015 but that verdict was overturned after lawyers learned that the jury foreman had not revealed that he had been a victim of statutory rape. Vandenburg was convicted again in June, on five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of unlawful photography.He faced a sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison, and his victim had asked for the maximum punishment.The woman, whom Vandenburg had begun dating shortly before the attack, did not appear in court Friday, but a prosecutor read her statement to Davidson County Criminal Courtt Judge Monte Watkins. Dante Pettis 49ers Jersey. Please do not use my absence as an excuse for leniency, as it in no way diminishes the profound and insidious impact of Mr. Vandenburg on me and my life, she wrote. I still ask that he receive the full sentence allowed under the law for orchestrating a sustained 30-minute gang rape against me, a defenseless woman who trusted him. The minimum sentence is not enough for what this man did to me.Vandenburg, already in jail since his second conviction, was also added to the state sex offender registry.The Associated Press does not normally identify victims of rape or sexual assault. The woman, who has since graduated from Vanderbilt and is pursuing a Ph.D. at another school, has tried to preserve her anonymity despite being forced to testify at multiple trials.Vandenburg apologized to her Friday. He told Judge Watkins that he was ashamed of what he had done and blamed it on alcohol.My judgment was severely impaired, and Im sad for everyone involved, Vandenburg said.The judge reiterated that this has been one of the saddest cases he has ever heard. He said Vandenburg abused the womans trust in the man she was dating. But for him, it would not have happened, Watkins said.Cory Batey, Vandenburgs former teammate, was convicted in a separate retrial and sentenced to 15 years.The cases of two other former teammates facing rape and other charges -- Jaborian Tip McKenzie and Brandon Banks, who remain out on bond -- have yet to be resolved. ' ' '