Late Rally Falls Short, Rangers Top Twins 5-4

The old (dumb) criticism of the NBA is that you only need to watch the last 5 minutes.  In the case of this game, you would have been well served to only watch the 9th inning, as the Twins almost completed a frenetic comeback in a 5-4 loss to Texas at Arlington.

For the balance of the tame, Rangers starter Nick Tepesch held Minnesota in check, going 7.1 scoreless innings against a somnambulant Twins offense.

Meanwhile, Kevin Correia did Kevin Correia things: 4 earned runs, 6 innings pitched, ERA still over 5.  His record falls to 4-9.

After Texas plated what appeared to be a superfluous fifth run against Matt Guerrier in the bottom of the 8th, the Twins started rallying in the 9th off Texas closer Joakim Soria.  Josh Willingham walked.  Kendrys Morales doubled.  Ozzie Arcia singled.  Ed Escobar reached on an error.  After a Sam Fuld infield pop-up, rookie Jorge Polance laced  a triple to right, and just like that it was 5-4 with one out and the winning run 90 feet from home plate.  Unfortunately, Brian Dozier picked right then to have his worst at-bat of the season, striking out and looking godawful in the process.  Kurt Suzuki was unable to pick him up, grounding out to end the game.

The defeat extends Minnesota's losing streak to 4, and ends the Rangers' losing streak at 8.  Minnesota's reward for making it interesting is Yu Darvish tomorrow.  Oh, boy.

ROBOT ROLL CALL

CHARTS & GRAPHS

Source: FanGraphs

Enjoy your weekend, everybody.