Rangers Lose At Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — After allowing a leadoff home run following a sub-par bullpen warm-up, Minnesota Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson feared the worst against the Texas Rangers on Sunday afternoon at Target Field.
Gibson allowed the first three men he faced to reach base but made a mechanical tweak and cruised from there, helping the Twins to a 5-4 win.
“It was one of those days, in the bullpen, I don’t know if I’ve thrown that bad in a while,” Gibson said. “Walking in, I almost just told [catcher] Kurt [Suzuki] ‘Man, it’s gonna be a long one today.'”
After Shin-Soo Choo homered on the second pitch of the game, and Gibson followed with a walk and a single to put two men on with nobody out, his premonition appeared to be accurate.
But the right-hander got Adrian Beltre to bounce into a 5-3 double play to slow the rally and got out of the jam on a line out to left. Gibson settled in after that, retiring 10 of the next 11 men he faced, including nine straight, allowing his offense a chance to get after Rangers starter Cole Hamels.
“We made a mechanical adjustment there in the second inning and it allowed me to get in front a
little bit better,” Gibson said. “Thankfully, I found a little bit of a groove. Kurt called a great game and we never deterred from the game plan, we just kept attacking.”
Hamels had won his last four starts prior to Sunday but was never able to get fully on track against the Twins, who drove him from the game before he could record an out in the fifth inning. It was Hamels’ shortest outing in 29 games since being traded to Texas from the Philadelphia Phillies last summer.
Kurt Suzuki and Robbie Grossman each had two hits and Miguel Sano reached base three times, scoring twice, as the Twins, baseball’s worst team (27-54), took the rubber match of the three-game series against the team with MLB’s best record (52-31).
Brandon Kintzler worked around a two-out double in the ninth for his fourth save.
Choo led the Rangers’ attack with a pair of hits, including a solo home run to lead off the game and a two-run double in the seventh inning.
“[The Twins] had a really good game plan, they were going to make [Hamels] work,” said Rangers manager Jeff Banister. “We hit some balls hard today. We hit them right at some people and we hit some line drives into the outfield. Couple feet either way, and it’s a different ballgame.”
With Gibson overcoming his early struggles, the Twins were able to get to Hamels for three runs in the third inning and two more in the fifth.
Danny Santana led off the third with a single and stole second with two outs. Sano’s infield single put runners on the corner for Brian Dozier, who bashed an opposite field two-run triple off the scoreboard in right-center field. Grossman followed with a run-scoring single to left and a 3-1 lead.
“[Hamels] lives off his cutter to the changeup, he wasn’t really commanding that cutter,” Dozier said. “He had to go to his fastball, lost command and starting leaving stuff over the middle of the plate.”
The Twins got three hits against Hamels in the fourth inning but were unable to score after they had two runners thrown out at the plate.
Hamels walked the first two men he faced in the fifth then gave up a single to Grossman to load the bases for rookie Max Kepler, who ripped a sharp single up the middle that scored one and ended Hamels’ day.
Eddie Rosario knocked in another run on a fielder’s choice grounder later in the inning, closing the book on Hamels (9-2). He allowed five runs on 10 hits and three walks in four-plus innings of work.
“As the game went on, I just wasn’t able to locate pitches early [in the count] and getting behind hitters,” Hamels said. “You’re throwing a lot of pitches down the middle and they can hit that.”
Gibson allowed a double to Rougned Odor and an RBI single to Elvis Andrus in the fifth before retiring the side in the sixth and the first two batters of the seventh. A throwing error by Sano allowed Andrus to reach before Gibson walked Jurickson Profar, eliciting manager Paul Molitor from the dugout.
“I thought the inning before, he was getting behind a little bit and he had to battle back on a couple of guys,” Molitor said. “We didn’t make a play there with two outs and then the next batter, they weren’t very competitive pitches. Tying run coming to the plate, we just made a move.”
Reliever Ryan Pressly walked pinch hitter Mitch Moreland and allowed a two-run double into the left-field corner by Choo, but got Ian Desmond to ground out to third to end the inning.
