The Rangers middle infield, signed to a half-billion dollars worth of contracts last winter, accounted for two of the Twins' three runs on Saturday night. At those prices, it only makes sense that they chipped in for their own team, too.
Corey Seager, the $325 million shortstop, lined a single down the right field line in the 10th inning Saturday, scoring Marcus Semien, the $175 million second baseman, from second base. Seager then scored another run on Mark Mathias' single up the middle, and Texas, despite plenty of sloppy defense, held on for a 4-3 victory at Target Field.
The loss ended the Twins' four-game winning streak and prevented them from catching Cleveland in the AL Central standings. It also frustrated a team that needed a couple of fielding mistakes and some good luck on the bases to mount any offense at all.
"We had a tough time stringing together the type of at-bats that we needed," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. Texas starter Glenn Otto "just kind of stayed away from the barrel. You have to give him credit for being able to do that."
And you have to give Chris Archer credit for holding Texas to just one run in five innings, and only one single over the last four of them. Yet the game continued a disturbing pattern for the veteran righthander: The Twins haven't won any of Archer's past seven starts, dating back to June.
Semien, who hadn't cracked a double in four weeks, led off the game by lacing an Archer slider off the wall in left-center, winding up on second base and in position to score when Adolis Garcia doubled to deep right-center three batters later.
Archer retired seven hitters in a row and allowed only one more hit before giving way to Devin Smeltzer in the sixth. He had to talk his way into doing so, when Baldelli came out, following a Carlos Correa error with two outs in the fifth, to decide whether to remove the starter.
"He said, 'This is your last guy. What do you think?' I said, 'I'm good to go,' " Archer said. "Carlos was in my ear saying 'Hey, I need you to pick me up [for the error].' That was even more motivation to say I got this."
He did, retiring Seager on a fly ball to center.
The Twins, meanwhile, capitalized on an errant throw by Seager and a bobbled relay by Semien, turning each — with a dab of baserunning aggressiveness — into their first two runs.
Seager's bad throw allowed Jake Cave to reach first base with one out in the fifth inning, and Rangers starter Glenn Otto moved him to second by walking ninth-place hitter Gary Sanchez. Luis Arraez then stroked a line drive that looped just over Seager's reach, allowing Cave, aggressively running on contact despite the danger of the ball being caught, to easily score the Twins' first run.
Three innings later, with the Twins trailing by a run, Max Kepler drew a two-out walk against Texas lefthander Matt Moore. Jose Miranda then lined a full-count changeup into right-center for a single.
Kepler, running on the pitch, rounded second and didn't slow up as he approached third base, even as the throw came in from center fielder Leody Taveras. But the ball popped out of Semien's glove and Kepler crossed home plate untouched, tying the game and eventually sending it to extra innings.
"Good third-base coaching right there," Baldelli said of Tommy Watkins' decision to wave Kepler home. His opinion "might have something to do with the result. But we weren't getting a ton going at that point. Sometimes you need to make something happen and force the opposition to make a play."
Making a play was unusually difficult for the Rangers. Even so Minnesota wound up dropping its eighth extra-inning game in 12 tries — but not without some last-minute drama, courtesy once again of Rangers' defensive lapses.
With one out and two runners on base, Jorge Polanco hit a double-play ball toward Semien, but he dropped it and was forced to throw to first base for just one out.
Kepler followed with a dribbler up the first-base line which Texas closer Jonathan Hernandez grabbed, and then dropped. Kepler was safe, Luis Arraez scored, and the Twins had one more chance. But Jose Miranda flew out to left field, and Bubba Thompson didn't drop his chance to end the game.
"It's not like I can sit here and give a reason why we couldn't really get it going," Baldelli said with a shrug. "We can't rely on just one swing to get the job done."
