25 August 2023
The Twins flexed some muscle against the Texas Rangers on Thursday but for most of the game, it seemed as if it wouldn’t be enough against the American League West leaders.
Playing from behind after Marcus Semien’s leadoff home run, the Twins finally caught up on Carlos Correa’s run-scoring double in the eighth inning and got over the hump on Ryan Jeffers’ two-run, two-out pinch-hit home run.
Within minutes, Griffin Jax had closed out a 7-5 victory in front of an announced crowd of 23,333 at Target Field.
The victory ended a two-game skid for Minnesota and extended their lead in the American League Central to five games over second-place Cleveland. The Rangers have lost seven in a row.
Jeffers’ homer, the Twins’ fifth of the night, came on the first pitch from left-hander Will Smith, who had just induced a double-play grounder from Max Kepler. But Jeffers hit an 83.1 mph slider an estimated 427 feet into the second deck in left-center to complete a three-run eighth inning.
Matt Wallner, who had pinch hit for Jordan Luplow in the fifth, started the inning with a single off the wall in right field and scored on Correa’s double to the foot of the wall in left-center to make it 5-5. Both hits were off pitches from right-handed reliever Josh Shorz.
That brought left-hander Smith to the mound to face Kepler. After his groundout, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought Jeffers in to hit for left-handed hitter Edouard Julien. The catcher needed only one pitch to change the game.
Jax pitched the ninth for his second save, striking out Semien and walking Seager before getting a 6-4-3 double play grounder from Nate Lowe to end it.
Michael A. Taylor homered twice, and Kyle Farmer and Royce Lewis added one apiece, but the Rangers jumped on Twins starter Pablo Lopez for 10 hits, three of them solo home runs, and the Twins spent most of the night playing catchup.
Lopez started the game with a 19-inning scoreless streak but it didn’t last long. Leadoff hitter Marcus Semien hit a 3-2 changeup into the first row of the left-center field bleachers for a 1-0 lead. It was Semien’s 20th home run of the season, and sixth leadoff homer.
The Twins had some success against Rangers starter Andrew Heaney, a lefty, getting the run back in the second inning with the first of Taylor’s two solo homers. Donovan Solano followed with a double off the scoreboard in right-center, but Heaney retired the next three Twins batters on flyouts to right field to keep the game tied, 1-1.
The Rangers then scored three two-out runs in the third inning, started by Corey Seager’s one-out, solo home run off Lopez. Nate Lowe then reached on an infield single and moved to second on Adolis Garcia’s single to center.
Former Twins catcher Mitch Garver then walked to load the bases for Travis Jankowski, whose single to center scored Lowe and Garcia for a 4-2 lead. Leody Taveras made it 5-2 with a one-out, solo homer in the fourth inning.
Taylor cut that lead to 5-3 with a leadoff home run in the fifth, and Royce Lewis homered off right-hander Chris Stratton to start the sixth inning and bring the Twins to within 5-4.
Josh Winder (2-0) pitched three hitless innings, walking two and striking out three, for the victory.