Thoughts on a 6-5 Rangers loss

Twins 6, Rangers 5

Twins 6, Rangers 5

• So close to an amazing comeback. Alas.
• It was a good game for starter Dane Dunning, who continued to show he can have success when he’s commanding his pitches and keeping the ball down.
• Both of the first two runs that the Twins scored off Dunning were in something of an odd fashion. In the second, Alex Kiriloff double to right with one out, then tagged to advance to third on a fly ball to Joey Gallo. Gallo had a chance to get Kiriloff but the throw was high, bounced away from Dunning, who was backing up the play, and resulted in Kiriloff scoring. Chris Woodward said after the game Dunning wasn’t properly positioned to back up the play, contributing to the problem.
• The next inning, a Luis Arreaz two out single was followed by a Josh Donaldson double. On a play at the plate, Arreaz was called out, but when the Twins challenged the play, replay showed Jose Trevino never tagged Arreaz, and he was called safe.
• Those were the only three hits Dunning allowed, incidentally.
• Dunning allowed two walks, one of which was in the sixth inning, and was part of a bad sixth inning that put Texas in a much bigger hole. With one out, Dunning walked Byron Buxton, who stole second and advance to third on a Nelson Cruz groundout. Kolby Allard entered the game for Texas, and gave up a double to Kiriloff, and the a fly ball to deep right center to Jorge Polanco. Adolis Garcia was in position to catch it, but jumped awkwardly and had the ball bounce off the heel of his glove for a triple. Max Kepler then singled, and what had been a 2-0 game turned into a 5-0 game.
• Allard finished out the game for Texas, putting up a 1-2-3 7th but allowing a run in the eighth on a single and a double. Allard has pitched well this year for Texas, but he wasn’t locating well at all yesterday, and the Twins hit him hard.
• All that being said, after being shut out through seven, Texas had a late rally to get back in it. They scored three in the eighth courtesy of an Adolis Garcia two run home run and an RBI ground out by Charlie Culberson, then got a two run homer from Joey Gallo in the ninth, but it wasn’t quite enough.
• Gallo had a solid game offensively, with a couple of hits and a walk, and Nate Lowe had a couple of hits. The problem was the team got just three hits in the first six innings of the game.
• Joey Gallo’s home run was 105.5 mph off the bat, and his single was 104.3 mph. Adolis Garcia’s home run was 107.7. Willie Calhoun had a 107.0 mph groundout. Nate Lowe was 106.4 mph on his double and 99.2 mph on his single. Nick Solak and Charlie Culberson had groundouts at 103.2 mph and 103.1 mph, respectively. David Dahl had a 102.3 mph single and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had a 100.2 mph double.
• Kolby Allard topped out at 93.3 mph yesterday, while Dane Dunning hit 92.1.
• The Rangers defense has generally been pretty decent this year, but defensive issues cost the Rangers four runs in this game. That’s frustrating.
• Still, it was nice to see a good game from Dane Dunning, and nice to see Joey Gallo have a big game. I will take that.