Ricky Nolasco (4-7) gutted it out in front of an at times shaky defense for his eighth quality start of the season — tied for the team lead with Ervin Santana — on the way to an 8-6 win for the Minnesota Twins at Globe Life Stadium on Saturday night.
The Twins offense pounded Rangers starter and old friend Kyle Lohse (0-1), as the 37-year-old righty’s contract was purchased from Triple-A Round Rock prior to the game in order for him to make his 2016 MLB debut. Lohse wasn’t exactly dealing down in the minors — 5.06 ERA, 6.3 K/9 and 1.26 WHIP — and that trend continued Saturday night as the Twins pummeled him for six earned runs on nine hits over five innings.
After a scoreless first inning for both sides, the Twins jumped on Lohse with a pair of runs in the second. Kennys Vargas continued his solid run since his recall with a one-out walk, and moved to third on a booming double from Eddie Rosario. Both runners came around to score on a Juan Centeno single to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.
The Rangers answered in their half of the second, as an Elvis Andrus home run to left cut the lead in half. The home run — Andrus’ fourth of the season — traveled an estimated 393 feet.
Texas added another pair of runs due to iffy defense in the third. Catcher Robinson Chirinos singled to lead off the frame, and Ian Desmond hit a chopper over the pitcher’s mound that was fielded by Brian Dozier. Rather than put the ball in his back pocket, Dozier threw an ill-advised toss with nothing behind it to first baseman Joe Mauer, who had to dive to his left to even have a prayer of corralling it. He still missed, and the ball went into the first base dugout to put runners on second and third with just one out.
Rougned Odor followed with an RBI grounder to first for the second out of the inning, and Adrian Beltre tomahawked a single into left to bring home Desmond and give the Rangers a 3-2 lead.
As the Twins offense has been particularly good at recently, it responded quickly to falling behind. Rosario opened the fourth with his second hit of the night — there would be four total — and came around to score when Danny Santana doubled to left-center to tie the game. Four pitches later, Eduardo Nunez gave the Twins a 5-3 lead with a 411-foot home run to left — his 12th of the season.
The Twins got to Lohse one more time, as Rosario smoked a home run to right-center in the fifth inning to give the Twins a 6-3 lead.
The Twins loaded the bases in the sixth inning against wild Rangers reliever Jose Leclerc, but stranded all three runners when Max Kepler slashed a 1-0 pitch into the waiting glove of Mitch Moreland at first base to end the threat.
Nolasco went back out for the sixth, and allowed Beltre and Fielder to reach with singles to put runners on the corners with nobody out and Nomar Mazara representing the tying run. Nolasco bore down, and got Mazara to ground a 2-0 pitch to Nunez at short, as he started a 6-4-3 double play which plated Beltre but got Nolasco out of a jam, as he induced an Andrus grounder to short to end the inning and his night.
The Twins went back to work in the next half inning — as noted, a recurring theme — with a pair of runs to push the lead to four. Vargas doubled to deep right, and switched places on Rosario’s subsequent double. Rosario hit the ball hard to right, with Rangers right fielder Shin-Soo Choo getting turned around initially, and firing a throw that cutoff man Odor could not handle, which enabled Rosario to cruise into third. Had Rosario been credited with a triple, he’d have been the first Twins player to hit for the cycle since Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer did so in the span of about five weeks back in 2009. Nevertheless, Rosario came home when Santana grounded into a double play, and the Twins were again doubling the Rangers up, 8-4.
Trevor May threw a clean seventh inning with a pair of strikeouts, as he continues to move back up manager Paul Molitor’s bullpen ladder, and gave way to Fernando Abad in the eighth. After striking out Odor swinging, Abad stumbled. The next three batters went walk, lineout, walk, single, as Andrus singled home Beltre with Ryan Rua — who hit for Mazara — and Andrus advancing into scoring position on the throw.
That led Molitor to go to closer Brandon Kintzler (save, 5) for the four-out save. Rangers manager Jeff Banister countered with pinch hitter Jurickson Profar to represent the tying run, but Kintzler got Profar to hit a comebacker on an 0-2 pitch to dance out of danger.
Kintzler briefly made things interesting in the ninth, as Desmond hit a booming, two-out double to left-center and scored on an Odor single. Beltre strode to the plate representing the tying run, but Kintzler got him to line to Rosario in left to preserve the Twins’ 31st win of the season.
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Up Next: LHP Tommy Milone (1-2, 5.45) vs. RHP A.J. Griffin (3-0, 3.06) – 2:05 p.m. Sunday
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Notes
- The start of the game was delayed 70 minutes due to rain that rolled through the area.
- Vargas (2-for-5) continued his extra-base hit streak, as he’s now up to seven hits — all for extra bases — since his recall from Triple-A Rochester (five doubles, two home runs).
- Byung Ho Park returned to action for the Rochester Red Wings after missing the last two games, and went 0-for-3 with a walk while batting sixth and playing first base. He’s hitting just .190/.320/.190 in six games since being sent out.
- Molitor on Nolasco’s night: “I thought getting out of the first was huge. They hit some balls hard. We got a pickoff, and we put up a zero. There were a couple lineouts to deep center; I think that helped him settle down. I think he pitched well. The inning he gave up two…we just had miscommunication on a routine play. The chopper when Brian should have probably just held onto the ball, and the broken-bat soft liner that Nunez couldn’t quite get to. He did well. The last inning was a bit of a struggle. Long night, long half inning preceding that but he got through six. The double play ball to minimize that one-run inning in the sixth kept it 6-4 at the time.”
- Molitor on the team’s offensive effort: “We had enough offense. We made a starter work again, and got the pitch count up. Rosie had a big night. Juan had a big hit early to put two on the board. We had to fight; it wasn’t easy. Had to got to Kintzler to get four outs, which isn’t always the first option. I think heading into the break gave me a little more courage. We hung on. It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but we found a way to win.”
- Molitor on Rosario’s strong night, and how he’s looked since returning: “It was good. I think we’ve seen a little bit of last year’s Eddie. We’ve also seen a little of early-season Eddie. For the most part, he’s getting a chance and hes’ gone up there and letting it fly with a little more discipline. I thought his home run swing was really compact; it wasn’t too big or trying to do too much. He just took a short swing and squared it up and the ball went plenty far. He’s learning. He battled that lefty (Alex Claudio) too in that last at-bat. We’ve got five outfielders so we’re kind of mixing and matching, but we’ll try to get him in there because he can do things like we saw tonight.”
- Molitor on if Rosario could have gone for the cycle if Vargas wasn’t on base ahead of him on the late double: “Possibly. He got to third on the misplay on the relay but I’m not sure if he’d have made it straight up. Choo had a little bit of a problem tracking that ball; I think it had some funny topspin as it got closer to the wall. That was a nice job by Kennys of reading the misplay and scoring, and Rosie getting to third base. Two doubles, a single and a homer…that’s still a pretty good night.”
- Molitor on Vargas since his recall: “Kennys is swinging well. We were a little apprehensive about his right-handed swing but he’s done well. He’s been an extra-base machine here early, with doubles and homers. With Byung Ho going back and him coming up here and getting a chance, so far he’s contributing there’s no doubt about that.”
