Texas Rangers 10, Minnesota Twins 6

by Todd Maternowski

Rangers ride huge offensive surge late to win first of four game series.

ARLINGTON ? The Texas Rangers surged to a late lead and held on Thursday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, defeating the Minnesota Twins 10-6. The win improved Texas to 73-51, six games ahead of the Oakland A's for first place in the AL West. Minnesota fell to 51-73.

Photo not provided by the Minnesota Twins

The Twins came up woefully short Thursday

With the score tied at 4-4 heading into the bottom of the eighth, Texas pounded out six runs to take control of the game. Adrian Beltre started the rally with a one-out double, then Nelson Cruz reached first on a Twins fielding error. Mitch Moreland responded with a double to drive in Beltre, and David Murphy was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Unfortunately for a Twins team dead-last in the American League, things took a turn for the worse at that point. First shortstop Pedro Florimon misplayed Geovany Soto's hit allowing Cruz to score, then Ian Kinsler drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk to make it 7-4. Elvis Andrus singled in Murphy for another run, then Josh Hamilton hit a two-run single to center that scored Soto and Kinsler and made a tight 4-4 duel into a 10-4 blowout. Beltre ended the inning he started with a groundout to third.

The Twins scored two runs in the top of the ninth on Andrus' two-out, bases-loaded throwing error, but the game had already been decided by that point.

Hamilton finished with five RBIs on the night, including a two-run double in the bottom of the first and a sacrifice fly that scored Kinsler in the fifth. Beltre drove in the other run, also in the fifth, with a solo home run, his fourth home run in the last two games. Hamilton leads the majors with 107 RBI, two more than Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers.

Rangers starter Roy Oswalt was subpar, allowing four runs on seven hits over five-plus innings. The decision was given to Mike Adams, who pitched a scoreless eighth, while Joe Nathan, who got the final out, was credited with his 25th save. Twins reliever Jared Burton, who gave up six runs --five unearned-- in that eighth inning blitz was given the loss.

Source: http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2012/aug/23/texas-rangers-10-minnesota-twins-6/

limp bizkit stations of the cross nike foamposite galaxy bill maher seabiscuit dingo nba all star weekend