Yu Darvish dominates Twins as Rangers win 5-0

The Twins have extended their road losing streak to ten games, pushing their record away from Target Field to 17-26. The lengthy streak coincides with the club's slide away from .500, although the record at home is still in the black at 19-17.

On Saturday, Yu Darvish was the alpha and the omega of this latest in the run of defeats on the road. In eight innings he allowed just four hits and a walk while striking out ten and, as you can tell by the headline, he didn't allow a single run. His backing wasn't an onslaught, but the Rangers offense didn't need to be overwhelming.

Sam Fuld couldn't get to a ball off the bat of Chris Gimenez in the second, falling (what looked like) just inches out of his reach as he ran towards the outfield wall, and that brought home the first Texas run. Rougned Odor singled, stole second, and eventually came home on a fielder's choice in the third. Luis Sardenas put down a successful sac bunt with the bases loaded in the eighth, and Leonys Martin followed up with a two-run double to put the cap on a three-run frame, the night of Phil Hughes, and the scoring for the game.

Hughes wasn't terrible. He pitched seven and two-thirds, with the first seven innings seeing him hold Texas to just two runs. He struck out six and walked one, but the Rangers did tally 11 hits. They managed a threat in most innings, even if Hughes did get away from it in most circumstances.

The Twins offense is where this game really stunk. In the second, Minnesota had their best chance to score when a wild pitch moved Oswaldo Arcia and Chris Parmelee up to third and second with two away, but Pedro Florimon looked lost against Darvish and couldn't get the job done.

Joe Mauer singled in the first, and Arcia and Parmelee each singled in the second. Minnesota's fourth hit came off of Parmelee with two outs in the seventh, a span of 18 batters. Florimon did work a fifth inning walk, but Darvish did sit down 17 of the 18 batters he faced between the Twins' third and fourth hit of the game.

Notes

• Chris Parmelee, in addition to his two hits, was able to pick up an outfield assist by throwing out Carlos Pena trying to take third base on a hit into left field.
• Parmelee looked to have bottomed out earlier in the month, but has picked up the pace and is now batting .400/.447/.543 in June. His season line is now up to .264/.306/.418. This offense desperately needs a hot bat or three right now so it's nice to see him contributing.
• Speaking of hot bats: in his last 16 games, Joe Mauer is hitting .328/.377/.453.
• Eduardo Escobar and Kurt Suzuki, two of the team's hottest bats from the start of the season, have cooled of late. But let's not talk about that.