Minnesota Twins lose to Texas Rangers 3-4 in series finale – MLB Update
Minnesota Twins lost to Texas Rangers 3-4 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas on Sunday, July 8 in the finale of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Ron Gardenhire and his men will be proud of their achievements in their three game match-up against one of the strongest teams in MLB. The Rangers are the leaders of American League West Division and not many expected the Twins to push them to their limits.
After securing an upset 5-1 in series opener, the Twins’ confidence levels were high and they were seeking for a rare series win in Arlington but the Rangers regrouped just at the right time. Showing great determination and courage in front of their home
crowd, they earned a narrow 4-3 win in Game 2 to level series 1-1.
"A lot of really good things happened there, unfortunately, we just couldn't nail it down, we couldn't finish it off," Twins’ manager Ron Gardenhire said in a post game interview. "A disappointing loss for us, some big plays to save the game, but not enough."
"It was huge," manager Ron Washington said. "We certainly needed to continue to move forward off of (Saturday).”
Similar pattern of play was observed in the finale with both teams sticking to their task but it was the Rangers who eventually came out on top to avoid series defeat against the last placed American League Central Twins.
Justin Morneau looked in decent form as he singled to centre in the sixth inning to break the deadlock and put the Twins 1-0 ahead. Minnesota took complete advantage of Rangers’ errors on the field and Brian Dozier, Ryan Doumit and Trevor Plouffe combined
to score the second run for their side.
Denard Span hit a sacrifice fly to right in the ninth to give the Twins complete control of the situation but the Rangers refused to give up. Elvis Andrus earned a groundout to second and Michael Young had an RBI single to centre in the bottom of the ninth
to tie score 3-3. Ian Kinsler provided the Rangers with an electrifying finish with an RBI single to deep left-centre in the 13th.
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