Twins Beat Rangers in Lopsided Affair

Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

June 16, 2026

Twins 12, Rangers 2

ARLINGTON, Texas (June 16) — The Texas Rangers were blown out Tuesday night, 12–2, by the Minnesota Twins. One of their many highlights was a big three-run homer by Kody Clemens in the first inning. After an off day Wednesday due to England’s match with Croatia in Group L of the World Cup at Dallas Stadium, the Rangers will try to salvage this series in the finale on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 pm Central at Globe Life Field. Right-handers Joe Ryan (4–3, 3.17 ERA) and Jack Leiter (3–6, 4.86 ERA) will face each other in the Thursday matinee.

Twins Break it Open

The Twins wasted no time against right-hander Kumar Rocker in the top of the first. On a 1–0 pitch, Trevor Larnach led off with a home run to right, his fourth of the season. In 2026, the Rangers have allowed 10 leadoff homers in the top of the first inning, the most in baseball. The San Francisco Giants are second in that category with six.

Up next was Byron Buxton, who hit a single that was bobbled by Josh Smith at second. Buxton swiped second moments later, for his seventh stolen base of the year. He moved to third on a 3–1 groundout by Clemens. Rocker was able to exhale a little after striking out Royce Lewis swinging, but gave up a single to Josh Bell that allowed Buxton to score.

The Twins added three more in the top of the third. Larnach led off with another hit, a single to right. Buxton followed by drawing a walk, and Clemens drove them both home with a three-run blast to right on another 1–0 pitch.

One of Those Nights

They piled on five more runs in the top of the fourth. Alex Jackson led off with a double and advanced to third two batters later when Buxton reached on a fielding error by Brandon Nimmo in right. This brought Rangers manager Skip Schumaker to the mound to bring in reliever Cal Quantrill. Jackson and Buxton both scored on the next play when Lewis hit a sharp single up the middle. Bell made it 9–0 Twins with a double to right and another miscue by Nimmo. This time it was a throwing error. After Brooks Lee grounded to second, Luke Keaschall plated Bell with a single to left.

The Rangers got on the board in the top of the fourth against righty Zebby Matthews. With one out, Wyatt Langford and Nimmo reached on back-to-back singles. Ezequiel Duran drove in Nimmo by grounding into a 6–4 force play. They scored their second run in the bottom of the fifth. Alejandro Osuna blooped a one-out single to right and scored from first on a double to center by Elias Diaz.

The Twins scored two more against Rangers catcher Kyle Higashioka making his first career pitching appearance. Keaschall led off with a double to left. After Tristan Gray flied to right, Keaschall scored on a double to center By Jackson. On deck was Larnach, who singled to left to nudge Jackson to third. Kyler Fedko drove in Jackson with a sacrifice fly to left.

What Went Right for the Twins

The Twins scored early and often on Tuesday. The home runs by Larnach and Clemens in the first deflated the crowd as if it were the tent this circus of a game was held in. Several more scoring opportunities presented themselves to the Twins and they took advantage of them.

What Went Wrong for the Twins

It was smooth sailing for the Twins until the fourth inning when three singles from Langford, Nimmo, and Diaz derailed Matthews’ early bid for a shutout.

Short Night for Rocker

Rangers starter Kumar Rocker was dealt his sixth loss of the season. His record sits at 2–6 after permitting a career-high seven runs, six earned. Over 3 1/3 innings, his line was 2 BB, 4 SO, 2 HR, 70 pitches/42 strikes. After allowing two runs in the first inning he now has a 9.69 ERA in opening frames this season. Tuesday’s outing spiked his season ERA from 3.56 to 4.17. Rocker remains winless in his last nine starts, matching Leiter for the longest streak by a Rangers starting pitcher in 2026.

Matthews’s Outing

Twins starter Zebby Matthews covered a career-high seven stanzas en route to his third win of the season. His line was 8 H, 2 R-ER, 0 BB, 4 SO, 93 pitches/68 strikes. Tuesday was his team-leading third start of seven innings this year and fifth career outing of seven innings. Two of the five such appearances have come at Globe Life Field; Tuesday and September 23, 2025. Matthews breezed through his first three innings on 35 pitches, facing one over the minimum. With the winning decision, he improves to 3–4 on the year with an ERA of 4.78

Schumaker’s Postgame Comments

After the game, Schumaker went over what he saw that his team could improve on going forward. “There’s a number of things,” he said. “Obviously, the start of the game wasn’t great. You look at the first pitch on, it just didn’t start off like we wanted. This one got away from us, plain and simple. I’ve said it before. In ugly losses like this when you don’t do well in all facets of the game it starts with me, so we’ve got to figure out how to get through that first inning with (Kumar) Rocker. That kind of was the start of it. We made some fundamental mistakes that need to fix.”