Cole Hamels gets to go home for the All-Star Game, a much-deserved honor for the Texas Rangers left-hander despite his struggles in consecutive games against the Minnesota Twins.
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Sunday’s game turned when rookie Max Kepler hit his first career grand slam in the fifth inning as part of a five-run fifth off Texas starter A.J. Griffin (3-1). Max Kepler hit a grand slam to create some distance and the Rangers played awful baseball in the latter stages of the game to turn it into a blowout.
The Texas Rangers have promoted well-travelled pitcher Kyle Lohse from Triple-A and will have him start right away.
Minnesota won three of four at Texas after taking the last two games of its home series against the Rangers the previous weekend. Eduardo Escobar and Brian Dozier added back-to-back homers in a seven-run seventh for the Twins, who have won seven of their last nine games – their best stretch of the season. The Twins collected 10 home runs over four games in the Texas heat, providing plenty of run support for their finally-coming-around pitching staff. “It should be the mindset all the time”. Everybody’s laughing before the game, enjoying themselves as much as they can. “Picking each other up”, Kepler said.
Kennys Vargas hit a towering shot to center in the fourth for the game’s first run. Cesar Ramos took the brunt with five runs allowed on five hits, including two homers.
The Twins are 4-0 in their last 4 Sunday games and 0-4 in Milones last 4 road starts.
Lefty Tommy Milone (2-2) was the primary beneficiary of the 18-hit attack.
Despite losing nine of their last 12 games, the Rangers still have the AL’s best record at 54-36. The Rangers head to the All-Star break with a 5 1/2-game lead, their smallest since June 14. Minnesota has reached double-digits in scoring five times this season, all of them since June 21. Today capped all that off.
“That in itself does put pressure on the offense”, Rangers manager Jeff Banister said of the starters’ collective recent struggles. Kurt Suzuki, Eddie Rosario and Robbie Grossman each had three hits. Hamels faced only three more batters after that, walking the last two.
“It’s great to score 15 runs”. “Really glad we got this win”. “We’ll recharge in the next couple of days and get back after it”. Centeno was later tagged out on the play.
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Hamels matched his career high with six walks in the game and again did not look sharp in his second start within a week against the Twins. Banister asked for a replay review, which showed Rosario’s foot just briefly lost contact with the bag while 2B Rougned Odor was still applying a tag. Minnesota OF Byron Buxton was out of the starting lineup for a second-straight game with a bone bruise in his right knee. “I never experienced something like that, so it just kind of made me panic a little bit more”. The club wants to see how he feels after his Sunday night rehab start for Double-A Frisco. Kela expects to rejoin the Rangers on Friday in Chicago. Minnesota will go with RHP Ervin Santana, RHP Tyler Duffey and RHP Kyle Gibson for its three-game series against Cleveland, which begins on Friday.
