Bullpen failure: Walks, hit batters cost Twins against Rangers
The Texas Rangers snapped an eight game losing streak with a 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins Saturday night in Minneapolis, though they didn't have to take many swings to score key runs.
Tied 2-2 in the ninth inning, the Twins gave the ball to Griffin Jax and disaster unfolded. Jax gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning and then got a strikeout. He then hit Ezequiel Duran with a pitch to load the bases. Then he walked the next two batters and just like that the Rangers were ahead 4-2.
Rocco Baldelli pulled Jax in favor of Dylan Floro, who hit Marcus Semien with a pitch to bring in another run for the Rangers. Corey Seager added a sacrifice fly and what was a 2-2 game ballooned into a 6-2 deficit because Jax and Floro struggled to throw strikes.
Minnesota managed just five hits on the night, including an RBI double by Max Kepler in the third inning and a solo homer from Jorge Polanco in the sixth.
Max Scherzer struck out 10 in seven innings for the Rangers. Joe Ryan returned from the injured list for the Twins and struck out seven while allowing just one run on five hits in five innings.
Cleveland lost Saturday to Toronto so Minnesota's lead in the AL Central Division remains six games.
Up next: Twins vs. Rangers, Sunday at 1:10 p.m. CT
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.