Rangers Lose Again
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers are proving to be just what the Minnesota Twins need to turn things around in 2016.
The Twins clinched the season series against the Rangers by rolling off six straight runs Saturday night on their way to an 8-6 victory.
Minnesota has won four of the six games against a Texas team that came into the game with the best record in the American League.
The Rangers have now lost six of eight after falling in a game that was delayed 1 hour, 10 minutes because of rain.
Once the rain cleared, the Minnesota bats got going.
A three-run fourth inning against Rangers starter Kyle Lohse (0-1), who was making his 2016 debut, was all the offense the Twins needed after they trailed 3-2 entering the inning.
An RBI double from Danny Santana tied the score at 3 in the fourth and Eduardo Nunez followed with a two-run homer to make it 5-3. The Twins got another run in the fifth on a homer to right center by Eddie Rosario, who went 4-for-5 with a homer, two doubles and four runs.
That was enough offense for Ricky Nolasco (4-7), who picked up his first win since June 13 with six innings of four-run ball.
“It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but we found a way to win,” Minnesota manager
Paul Molitor said. “We had enough offense. We made a starter work again, got his pitch count up. Rosy (Rosario) had a big night.”
Lohse was tagged for six runs and nine hits in five innings. His outing marked the eighth straight game a Texas starter has failed to go more than five innings. The rotation ERA during that span is 10.45.
Lohse felt some tightness in his right side in the first inning but tried to pitch through it to save a Texas bullpen that carried a big workload because of the rotation struggles.
“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses,” said Lohse, who was visited by the team trainer in the fifth inning but stayed in the game. “I took the ball and kept battling out there with what I had. I just didn’t have my best stuff.”
The Rangers got a run back in the fifth on a double-play grounder before the Twins tacked on two runs in the seventh on an error and a double-play grounder. Rosario scored one of those runs, making him the first Minnesota player to score four times in a game in 2016.
“I feel good to hit today,” said Rosario, who was recalled from Triple-A on July 3. “I had good pitch selection. Sometimes you don’t need to swing good. Good contact, good swing. Some days you have a good day. Some days you don’t have a good day.”
Minnesota opened a 2-0 lead in the second before the Rangers took a brief lead. Elvis Andrus homered in the second and Texas got RBIs from Rougned Odor and Adrian Beltre in the third.
Andrus added an RBI single in the eighth as the Rangers tried to rally late. Odor delivered a two-out single in the ninth to make it a two-run game, but Brandon Kintzler got Adrian Beltre to fly out to left to end the game for his fifth save of the season.
“Our guys continue to swing the bat, continue to put runs on the board,” said Texas manager Jeff Banister, whose team outhit the Twins 13-12. “The challenge obviously is being able to maintain the game. When we keep the game in check, our hitters have come through, put runs on the board and we’ve won ballgames.”
