DETROIT -- The Tigers had been threatening big innings against the Twins all Saturday afternoon. They did it with the kind of at-bats manager A.J. Hinch has been looking for since Spring Training.

Detroit’s five-run seventh inning wasn’t glamorous, with neither home runs nor bat flips. Nor were there crippling strikeouts from a team that has been swinging and missing far too often and putting far too few balls in play.

Not only did the Tigers put up a five-spot without an extra-base hit, neither Robbie Grossman's leadoff single nor Miguel Cabrera's go-ahead single escaped the infield. They still ended up with more runs in one inning than they scored in 23 of their other 33 games this season, propelling them to a much-needed 7-3 win at Comerica Park.

“When we have action [on the bases], we're a different team,” Hinch said after his club’s fourth win in its last 21 games. “The ball in play was pretty good. The activity on the bases, first to third, the two-strike hitting, it just kind of creates a much different look.”

The approach had been building. The Tigers churned out 12 singles and two doubles in Thursday’s 12-9 loss, while dropping their strikeout total into single digits in a game for the first time in a week and the 11th time this season. They showed similar signs early against Twins starter Matt Shoemaker in Friday’s series opener before striking out for 11 of their final 18 outs.

Against José Berríos, the Tigers stuck to their plan. The lone homer came from Grossman on Berríos’ third pitch of the game, taking his former Minnesota teammate deep to right for Grossman’s first leadoff homer in three years.

Detroit drew five walks in six innings against Berríos and nine for the game, its highest single-game total since June 13, 2016. The Tigers had nine-plus walks and just three strikeouts in a game for the first time since Aug. 21, 2012, when their lineup boasted Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Austin Jackson and Jhonny Peralta.

“Look, we're just trying to put up good at-bats and get guys on, and good things will happen,” said Grossman, who went 3-for-3 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch as he finished a triple shy of the cycle. “Put the ball in play and give us more options to score runs, and we did that. We've been putting together some good games with that, and we're looking to build and continue to do that.”

On the flip side, the Twins hammered 10 balls with a 100 mph exit velocity or harder against Tigers starter José Ureña, but had only Josh Donaldson’s two-run homer to show for it. Ureña gave up nine hits over 4 1/3 innings, ending his streak of four consecutive seven-inning starts. Michael Fulmer inherited his bases-loaded jam in the fifth and retired Miguel Sanó and Ben Rortvedt, sending him on his way to 2 2/3 scoreless innings and his second win of the year.

Grossman’s infield single against the shift and Harold Castro’s ensuing liner to left, his third single of the game, put Detroit’s offense in motion against Tyler Duffey. None of the Tigers’ five seventh-inning singles had a triple-digit exit velocity. The hardest-hit ball of the inning was Jeimer Candelario’s groundout at 100.4 mph, which advanced Grossman and Castro.

"Duffey is probably one of my closest friends from home,” said Grossman, a Cypress, Tex. product. “I see him every day when we work out in the offseason at the same place. I know him like the back of my hand. It's fun facing friends and people you know and people you see all the time. So I always want to get the best of him so I can have some bragging rights in the offseason."

Cabrera’s grounder to third had just a .160 expected batting average, but required Donaldson to go to the ground to make the stop. Donaldson never got a grip on the ball as Grossman scored to put Detroit in front.

Five consecutive Tigers reached with two outs, including three walks and two-run singles from Niko Goodrum and Jake Rogers. The latter was Rogers’ first big league hit since Sept. 26, 2019, and came a day after the Tigers called him up from Triple-A Toledo to replace injured Wilson Ramos.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective. Hinch also hopes it’s a starting point.

“When you see it on the field and you see the benefits of it, you hope that it catches a little momentum and we can continue that,” he said.