The Texas Rangers have been among the worst hitting teams in the majors this season. But don’t be fooled by that, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli cautioned before the game.
“They haven’t swung it this year so far. But if you look at their lineup, it’s a very dangerous lineup,” Baldelli said.
It sure was on Tuesday. Hours after he said that, the Rangers erupted for a season-high 16 runs in a 16-4 walloping of the Twins on Tuesday night at Target Field in the series opener.
After skirting around trouble in his first three innings, Simeon Woods Richardson, recalled from Triple-A on Tuesday, couldn’t evade it in the fourth inning. The inning began when Byron Buxton could not handle a ball that he leapt for and got a glove on. It went for a two-base error, setting the stage for what would become a three-run inning for the Rangers.
They busted the game open an inning later, scoring five runs in the fifth inning and knocking Woods Richardson out. It didn’t stop with his departure. Two more runs scored in the sixth inning off Justin Topa, and the Rangers rocked Jorge Alcala for six (five earned) in the eighth inning.
While every Ranger in the starting lineup finished with a hit, the bulk of the damage came from the bottom of the order with their six through nine hitters driving in 14 of their 16 runs. No. 6 hitter Evan Carter drove in three runs, Josh Jung another four, Adolis García two of them and Kyle Higashioka, batting at the bottom of the lineup, led the team with five runs batted in.
Though the Twins collected 12 hits of their own, they would never recover after falling into the three-run deficit in the fourth inning.
Ty France smacked a high fastball off the wall in right field to drive in the Twins’ first run of the game, and Royce Lewis added another RBI knock later in fourth.
The Twins added another run in the fifth inning, and Matt Wallner hit his fourth home run since returning from the injured list on May 31 in the sixth inning for their final run of the day.
All four of those runs came off former Twins starter Tyler Mahle, who threw 5 2/3 innings and picked up the win in his return to Target Field.
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