Rangers Drop Second Straight to Twins

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

August 16, 2024

Twins 4, Rangers 3

ARLINGTON, Tex. (Aug 16) — The Texas Rangers fell to the Minnesota Twins, 4–3, in the second game of their four-game set on Friday. Their are now 2–8 over their last 10 games, as their hopes of a World Series title defense are beginning to fade away. The Rangers are now 11 games under .500 for the first time this season. They have lost 15 of 20 since a five-game winning streak in late July.

On the other side, home runs by Ryan Jeffers and Carlos Santana (no relation) helped lift the Twins to the victory on this hot evening in Arlington. The Rangers will try to put gain some momentum in the third game of this series on Saturday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 pm Central. Right-hander David Festa (2–2, 5.20 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Twins, while fellow righty Nathan Eovaldi (8–6, 3.75 ERA) will get the ball for the Rangers.

Rangers Score First

The Rangers got into the run column first in the bottom of the second against Twins righty Simeon Woods Richardson. Adolis Garcia led things off with a single to center. Nathaniel Lowe followed with a walk, nudging Garcia over to second. He raced to third when Josh Jung flied to right. That brought up Wyatt Langford, who hit a sacrifice fly to left, plating Garcia. The Twins knotted it at one run apiece in the top of the third off Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney. Jeffers led the frame off with a solo home run to left, his 18th of the season.

Semien Goes Yard

The Twins added three more in the top of the fifth. Heaney opened the inning by hitting Jeffers with a pitch. After Edouard Julien struck out swinging, Jeffers moved to second on a single to left by Manuel Margot. On deck was Santana, who belted a three-run home run to left-center to give the Twins a 4–1 lead. It was Santana’s 17th blast of the year. The Rangers cut the Twins’ lead in half in the bottom of the fifth. After a pop-out by Carson Kelly and a line-out by Leody Taveras, both to Santana at first, Marcus Semien stepped to the plate. He blasted his 18th dinger of the season, a solo shot to left.

The Rangers made it 4–3 in the bottom of the sixth. The inning started with reliever Caleb Thielbar on the mound for the Twins. After Josh Smith popped out to Jeffers behind the plate, Garcia struck out swinging, bringing up Lowe. He singled to center, bringing Twins manager Rocco Baldelli to the mound to bring in right-hander Cole Sands to relieve Thielbar. Jung advanced Lowe to third on a single to left with Langford waiting on deck. On the next play, Lowe came in to score on a single to left by Langford. This trimmed the Twins’ lead to 4–3.

What Went Right for the Twins

As previously mentioned, the Twins rode the home runs by Jeffers and Santana to the win on Friday. Their pitching staff also did a nice job of limiting the damage, as the Rangers had several scoring opportunities. Their bullpen tossed three scoreless innings to help close the door on the Rangers’ push for a late-inning win.

What Went Wrong for the Twins

The crowd of 28,705 was relatively silent up until the homer by Semien in the fifth. The Twins were cruising with a three-run lead and Semien made it too close for comfort with one swing. The RBI single by Langford was a road block as well, but the Twins were able to find a way around it.

Tough Luck for Heaney

Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney suffered his career-high 13th loss of the season, most in the majors in 2024. It matches the most losses in a season by a Ranger in the last 10 years. Righty Jordan Lyles also had 13 losses in 2021. Heaney is 0–3 with a less than desirable ERA of 6.66 over his last five starts. He gave up multiple homers on Friday for the fourth time this season. Heaney used 16 pitches to retire Margot during the first at-bat of the game, but retired Santana and Max Kepler on the next two pitches, totaling 18 pitches in the first inning. Heaney’s overall record for 2024 now sits at 4–13 with an ERA of 4.20.

Woods Richardson’s Evening

Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson earned the win on Friday, making his 21st start of the season and first ever against the Rangers. His record now sits at 4–3 with an ERA of 3.77. He yielded two runs, both earned, on three hits in five frames. The rest of his line consisted of two BB, one SO, one HR, 78 pitches/48 strikes. The Sugar Land, Texas native surrendered the pair of runs on a sac fly by Langford in the second and the solo shot from Semien in the fifth before exiting with the 4–2 lead. Woods Richardson is back in the win column for the first time since June 26 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. After tossing a perfect ninth with two strikeouts, righty Jhoan Duran earned his 18th save of the season, and his second save in as many days.

Postgame Comments

After the game, the first question that Rangers manager Bruce Bochy fielded was how he felt about Friday being another close loss. “A loss is a loss,” Bochy said. “They’re not fun. We’ve played some tight games, and lately it hasn’t gone our way. Lately in some of these games, I thought we swung the bats a lot better. We’ve had a lot of bad luck recently, and that makes it more frustrating. The one-run games are always baffling, but to reiterate, a loss is a loss. You never want to drag your knuckles, but we’re just in that sort of stretch right now. We’ll do our best to come out of it though.”