Alexi Casilla’s hit brings 4-1 win to Minnesota Twins over Texas Rangers – MLB Update
Alexi Casilla skilfully hit the winning run on Thursday, June 9 guiding the Minnesota Twins to a brilliant 5-4 win over the otherwise unbeatable Texas Rangers at Target Field, Minneapolis.
Emerging as a strong hitter, Casilla drove in the winning runs in the ninth inning with the two outs against the Rangers’ famously incontestable pitching line-up.
Josh Hamilton set the ball rolling for the Rangers in the very first inning with his homer to right centre. Blackburn gave up a hit and resultantly a run that provided a 1-0 lead to the Rangers. Delmon Young levelled the score in the second inning when Derek
Holland threw the second pitch of the inning.
The game assumed a lively form in the fifth inning when Michael Cuddyer struck a magnificent three-run homer against Derek Holland, giving a 4-1 lead to the Twins. Holland gave up two hits in the inning, one of which proved very important to him and the
team.
However, Adrian Beltre and Mitch Moreland scored a single each to bring the lead down to 4-3 for the Rangers as the defence line-up of both the teams seemed to have temporarily lost their characteristic vigour.
While the coming few innings remained scoreless, with the Twins having a rare 4-3 edge, Nelson Cruz hit a single in Blackburn’s eighth inning. Blackburn’s pitches were apparently prompting a change of pitching line-up after Holland threw a shut-out eighth
inning for the Rangers.
Once Chuck James limited the Rangers’ hitters in the ninth, Mark Lowe braced himself to contain the Twins’ offence. Lowe succeeded in his endeavour, having three outs with ease. However, Casilla singled to left, allowing Hughes to score in a thriller that
endowed the Twins with a fascinating 5-4 win.
The hit excited the manager Ron Gardenhire the most who said, "You get that feeling that he's going to bang the ball somewhere. There's a lot of different ways he can get a hit. He put a nice swing on that one."
The win will certainly boost Minnesota’s confidence given the fact that they rank fifth in the Central League with .387 PCT, having only 24 wins with 38 losses. The four-game series’ second encounter on Friday will be a challenge for the Twins to maintain
their streak against the favourites Texas Rangers.
It will be interesting to see how the Twins carry their winning momentum into their next game. The Rangers put in a decent performance, but it just was not enough to contain the Twins offence.
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