The Twins’ offense is so quiet these days you could hear the crickets chirping in the bat rack if not for the teeth gnashing all around.
Trying times indeed for an injury-plagued team with a razor-thin margin for error and a penchant for self-inflicted wounds and missed opportunities.
The streaking Texas Rangers exploited two soft innings from Minnesota starter Fernando Romero and a couple of Twins baserunning errors in cruising to an 8-1 victory Friday night to claim the opener of a three-game series at Target Field.
Brian Dozier getting thrown out at second base by a good five feet in the first inning and Ryan LaMarre hesitating himself into no-man’s land in the sixth would be nitpicking if only Minnesota could mount any type of attack against Texas starter Mike Minor.
But the gaffes were magnified because the lefty only allowed three hits over six innings, and the Twins failed to muster another while fading quietly into the warm summer night.
Minor faced the minimum through five innings to earn the win. In the first he yielded a two-out single to Dozier, who put his head down and made a beeline to second trying to stretch the liner into a double. Left-fielder Joey Gallo came up firing and threw out Dozier with ease.
“Two outs, you’ve got to try to get to second,” Dozier said. “I forgot to turn my invisible powers on. Hoping he wouldn’t see me but he did. Oh well. He made a nice throw. I’ll do it every single time.”
Shin-Soo Choo’s two-run homer in the fifth inning doubled an early 2-0 lead and gave Minor ample support as he mowed down the Twins’ with minimal trouble.
After Dozier’s knock, he did not allow another hit until Max Kepler’s lead-off double in the sixth. Ryan LaMarre subsequently grinded out a nine-pitch walk to create a viable scoring threat. However, LaMarre got a late jump on a wild pitch in which Kepler advanced to third. He, too, was easily was thrown out trying to advance to second.
Joe Mauer doubled home Kepler with two outs, but LaMarre’s baserunning gaffe short-circuited a potential big inning for Minnesota, which never threatened again.
“I get it when you’re on first, you see the ball and you’ve got to see what the runner’s doing at second and then you go back to the ball,” said manager Paul Molitor, who defined his hall of fame career as a shrewd baserunner.
“But you don’t have to go. I talked to Ryan about it. He said he kind of lost the ball and how far it was away. When you’re down four runs and you’re not sure, you better hold your ground.”
Not even a defensive gem by Dozier in the seventh could jumpstart the Twins’ moribund offense.
With the bases loaded and one out, Elvis Andrus smoked a liner toward center field that Dozier speared on his backhand before flipping the ball in one motion to Ehire Adrianza, who doubled off Ronald Guzman to snuff the rally.
“Plays are plays, but I like making them in situations like it was,” Dozier said. “That was pretty cool. Nice job by AD getting to the bag and reading it pretty good. It got us out of a jam.”
Romero (3-3) allowed only a walk through three innings before Texas opened the fourth with three consecutive singles to break the scoreless tie; Adrian Beltre picking up an RBI with the third base hit.
A fielder’s choice by Roughned Odor pushed across another run for the Rangers. They added three more in the ninth off reliever Matt Belisle, who has allowed six earned runs in his last two appearances
The Rangers, who are buried in last place in the American League West, extended their winning streak to six games.
Meanwhile, the Twins fell back to six games under .500. They are 11-9 in June, but in those nine losses they have averaged a paltry 1.67 runs.
“We had three hits,” said Molitor. “At the end of the day you’re not scoring. Everything kind of seems more frustrating because we know we’re having trouble putting runs on the board.”