Rangers lose to Twins 6-5 on questionable call
The Texas Rangers were in the midst of an impressive ninth inning rally Sunday only to see it cut short by umpire Alfonso Marquez.
After going into the ninth inning down 6-2 to the Minnesota Twins the Rangers rallied scoring two runs to close the gap to 6-4. With two outs, the bases loaded and down by two, Vladimir Guerrero hit a single that scored Cristian Guzman.
As Michael Young advanced from second base and rounded third he appeared to tap hands with third base coach Dave Anderson. Young retreated back to third base beating Orlando Hudson’s throw to Matt Tolbert. The umpire, Alfonso Marquez called Young out due to the contact he had with Anderson ending the game and preserving a 6-5 win for the Twins.
“Bad call by a good umpire,” Young contended. “It’s a shame the game had to end like that. Didn’t touch Dave, don’t think I was anywhere near Dave.”
The Rangers had trouble scoring all weekend against the Twins, putting up only three runs on Friday and four on Saturday; the Twins scored four and 12 respectively.
On Sunday the lack of offensive production continued for the Rangers leading up to the ninth inning. In eight innings the team had only managed a pair of hits in the second inning that scored two runs, tying the game at 2-2 midway through the second inning.
C.J Wilson struggled on the mound for the Rangers ending his winning streak at four games in a row. He had a hard time throughout the five and a third innings that he pitched giving up seven hits, six earned runs, and four walks while walking four for loss number six on the season.
The loss was another blow to a bad weekend that saw the Rangers lose an MVP candidate after Hamilton bruised some ribs colliding with the centre field wall on Saturday while making a catch.
“I have no clue when I’ll be back,” Hamilton said Sunday. “I really don’t. Your guess is as good as mine…I feel like I’ve been in a car wreck.”
With the loss the Rangers dropped to 75-61 on the season, but since the Oakland Athletics also lost, the Rangers were able to maintain their eight-game lead over the Athletics in the AL West division.
Texas will travel to Toronto on Monday to start a four-game series with the Blue Jays. Scheduled to take the mound for the Rangers is Tommy Hunter with Ricky Romero set to do so for the Blue Jays. Toronto has had the Rangers’ number of late winning the last six contests between the two teams.
Tags: