Luke Keaschall went 4-for-5 with a double, a triple and three RBIs, and the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 10-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Friday night in Minneapolis.
Kody Clemens went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs for Minnesota (76-84), which won the opener of its final three-game series. Royce Lewis had two RBIs, and Ryan Kreidler finished 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford had one RBI apiece for Texas (79-81), which dealt a blow to its bid to win the American League West.
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (7-10) allowed two runs on four hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out eight.
Rangers right-hander Jacob deGrom (11-11) was battered for eight runs on eight hits in four innings. He walked three and struck out five, reaching 201 strikeouts for his first 200-strikeout season since 2019 with the New York Mets.
The matchup started out well for the Rangers. They scored the first two runs on Seager’s RBI single to right and Langford’s RBI groundout in the top of the first inning.
The Twins stormed back with six runs in the second to seize the lead for good.
Minnesota started the big inning by loading the bases with nobody out against deGrom. Lewis batted next and hit a two-run single to center to even the score at 2-all.
Two batters later, Kreidler reached on a bunt single that allowed Walker Jenkins to score from third. Keaschall followed with a two-run triple to right, and moments later Keaschall scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-2 in favor of the Twins.
Keaschall struck again two innings later. He hit an RBI double to drive in Kreidler, and Clemens followed two batters later with an RBI single to increase the lead to 8-2.
The blowout continued as the Twins tallied two more runs in the sixth. Keaschall hit a one-out single, and Clemens belted a two-run, 398-foot homer to left-center field.
The blast marked Clemens’ 27th homer of the season, adding to his career high.
