The Minnesota Twins don’t want to see the All-Star break start or the Texas Rangers exit their schedule. The 24-year-old was hitting.200 when sent down to Triple-A Rochester in late May after hitting.267 in 122 games as a rookie last season.
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The Kepler slam, the first for Minnesota this year, capped a five-run fifth inning for the Twins off Texas starter A.J. Griffin (3-1).
Adams snapped an 0-for-27 skid with a solo homer estimated at 455 feet to lead off the second.
The Twins were far from done. Vargas was down in the count 1-2 before drawing a walk to bring up Kepler with two outs. The Twins matched their season high with 18 hits, after also having 18 in the series opener Thursday night. Robbie Grossman, Eddie Rosario and Kurt Suzuki, their Nos. Andrus scored on Bobby Wilson’s sacrifice fly.
NOTES: Rangers RHP Kyle Lohse, who pitched five innings in his Texas debut Saturday, has been diagnosed with a tight right oblique. Three of the Rangers’ regular starters have been on the disabled list: Yu Darvish, Colby Lewis and Derek Holland. Griffin is 2-0 with a 2.77 ERA and 13 strikeouts this season.
Umpires-Home, Brian Knight; First, Tony Randazzo; Second, Adam Hamari; Third, Bill Miller. Nolasco, who has only one win in his last seven starts, is 3-3 with a 4.79 in eight starts away from home.Nick Martinez, winless in four starts, was scheduled to get the nod Saturday but he was demoted to the minors after Friday’s game to clear the way for Lohse’s return. Its AL West lead has dwindled from 10 games to 5 1/2 over Houston, still the largest ever for the Rangers at the break, but their smallest since June 14.
The Rangers asked everyone in attendance to “pause and remember those who have lost their lives in tragic events across our nation in the last week, including those of our community who last night were injured or tragically lost their lives in the line of duty”. Then the Twins erupted for seven runs, their biggest inning of the season, in the seventh against the mistake-prone Rangers and their beleaguered bullpen.
An RBI double from Danny Santana tied the score at 3 in the fourth and Eduardo Nunez followed with a two-run homer to make it 5-3.
Twins: CF Byron Buxton left the game with a bruised right knee after crashing into the outfield wall in the first inning when going after Odor’s triple. His outing marked the eighth straight game a Texas starter has failed to go more than five innings. The rotation ERA during that span is 10.45.
The Rangers got a run back in the fifth on a double-play grounder before the Twins tacked on two runs in the seventh on an error and a double-play grounder.
Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second before the Rangers took a brief lead.
Not only did every member of the Twins’ starting lineup collect at least one hit, the second time in this series they’ve done that, but all nine starters scored at least once.
Brandon Kintzler got a four-out save for his fifth of the season.
The Twins battered Lohse for six runs and nine hits in his five innings.
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CORRECTS TO SUNDAY NOT SATURDAY – Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Tommy Milone delivers to the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 10, 2016, in Arlington, Texas.
