MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins have struggled with runners in scoring position for the better part of two weeks, and Sunday was more of the same.
Except there were fewer chances for that to even come into play, as the Twins only put four runners in scoring position in a 7-0 loss to the Rangers in front of 24,802 announced fans at Target Field.
The Twins fell to 62-57, 2 1⁄2 games back from Cleveland for the AL Central lead and just one game ahead of the White Sox in third. The Rangers improved to 55-66 sitting in distant third in the West division.
The first part of Sunday's game was a pitching duel between Twins starter Joe Ryan and Rangers starter Kohei Arihara. The Twins put up a single hit in each of the first two innings but then no more until Arihara exited after giving up consecutive base hits to start the seventh.
Ryan gave up just one hit — a home run to Marcus Semien to leadoff the fourth inning — until just before he left the game in the seventh inning after allowing Adolis Garcia a single. Trevor Megill came in to hit a batter with a pitch and then allow three consecutive singles, including a two-RBI smack from Brad Miller and another RBI base hit from Semien to make the score 4-0.
Emilio Pagan pitched the eighth inning and surrendered a solo homer to Nathaniel Lowe. Returning for the ninth, he let in five hits and two runs, including RBI for Miller and Semien.
In all, the Rangers outhit the Twins 11-4.
