Rare Win for Rangers in Extras

Texas hasn't been good in one-run games this season, but is 2-1 in such contests this week.

Texas and Minnesota went extra Saturday night, with the Rangers beating the Twins 4-3 in 10 innings at Target Field.

The Rangers (54-66) took the lead back in the top of the 10th as Corey Seager’s RBI single scored Marcus Semien, the ghost runner  from second base for 3-2 lead. Mark Mathias later drove in Seager to push the lead to two runs.

The Twins (62-56) answered with Luis Arraez at second base to start the bottom half of the 10th and Carlos Correa drawing a walk from Rangers reliever Jonathan Hernández.

The Rangers got out of the inning, but it wasn’t easy. The Twins didn’t have a hit, but scored a run on a Hernández error, as Arraez coming home from third. With Correa at third, representing the tying run, Jose Miranda flew out to end the game.

It was the second time in as many games the Rangers played a one-run game, as they lost, 2-1, on Friday. The Rangers have played three one-run games this week and are 2-1. The Rangers beat Oakland 2-1 on Monday. The Rangers are now 8-25 in one-run games this season.

Rangers starter Glenn Otto had a solid outing, even though he left two out and a runner on in the bottom of the sixth in line for the win (which turned in a no-decision). Otto went 5 2/3 innings, giving up three hits, one run (unearned), three walks, one strikeout and throwing 86 pitches.

Entering the start Otto was 1-1 in August with a 2.56 ERA, giving up just five earned runs in 17 innings. Hitters were batting just .170 off of him in those three starts. He had six walks in his last start on Monday, so he was to resolve some of his control issues.

Otto’s only run allowed was the result of a Seager error in the fifth. Twins left fielder Jake Cave hit a grounder to Seager, but his throwing error to first allowed Cave to reach base. Otto then issued a walk to catcher Gary Sánchez.

Twins first baseman Luis Arraez. He hit a flare to center field that got just over the outstretched glove of Seager, which scored Cave and tied the game at 1-1. Otto got out of the jam by getting Byron Buxton to line out to left fielder Bubba Thompson. Because of Seager’s error, the run was unearned.

From there, the Rangers bullpen kept the Twins scoreless until Matt Moore gave up the game-tying run in the bottom of the eighth. He walked Max Kepler with two outs, followed by Jose Miranda’s line drive into center field, Kepler scored from first, in part because Rangers center field Leody Taveras’ throw to Semien was low and Semien was unable to gather it to relay it to home plate.

Texas grabbed the lead in the first inning, the result of a Semien leadoff double. It nearly went over the fence in left field, but it ended up hitting the top of the wall, stopping nearly dead and dropping to the warning track. Semien advanced to third on a groundout by Seager and scored on Adolis García’s double to right field, which extended his career-high hitting streak to 17 games.

The Rangers regained the lead in the sixth off Twins reliever Justin Smetzler, who replaced starter Chris Archer after five innings. Archer only gave up three hits and struck out five. But Smetzler, who worked his first game out of the bullpen this season, gave up a single to Nathaniel Lowe, which glanced off Smeltzer’s glove and slid just under shortstop Carlos Correa’s glove. Lowe didn’t score, though. García popped up to Jorge Polanco at second, but he lost the ball in the lights and while it dropped to the ground, the Twins were still able to get Lowe out at second base.

García was nearly picked off at first, but he scored the go-ahead run after Taveras’ single moved him to second and Ezequiel Duran’s single to left scored García, who got extra time to score when Smeltzer cut off the throw from Cave in left.

Lowe, who also had a hit in the 10th inning, had a four-hit night for Texas.

The Rangers are finally putting their drama in the rear-view mirror. The Rangers fired team president Jon Daniels and put general manager Chris Young in charge of all baseball operations on Wednesday. The move, made by the team’s principal owner, Ray Davis, came two days after Daniels and Young fired manager Chris Woodward and elevated third-base coach Tony Beasley to interim manager.

The Rangers continue the series on Sunday as they start Kohei Arihara at 1:10 p.m. central. Cole Ragans starts the series finale on Monday.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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