ARLINGTON, Texas _ It's a little embarrassing how lopsided these games have become. When the AL's worst record meets the AL's best, blowouts are unavoidable.
Usually, though, you can tell which team is which.
The Twins finished their horrible first half with a decidedly optimistic flourish on Sunday, pasting the first-place Rangers with their highest-scoring inning of the season and running away with their seventh victory in 10 games, a 15-5 win at Globe Life Park.
Minnesota enters the All-Star break with a 32-56 record, the second-most losses in franchise history and the fourth-worst winning percentage. But they're also baseball's highest scoring team over the past three weeks, and closed out Texas with five wins in seven games, outscoring the Rangers 62-30. Minnesota has reached double-digits in scoring five times this season, all of them since June 21.
Max Kepler clubbed the Twins' first grand slam of the season, Eduardo Escobar and Brian Dozier whacked back-to-back home runs and Kennys Vargas homered for the third time since being called up a week ago. The Twins collected 10 home runs over four games in the Texas heat, providing plenty of run support for their finally-coming-around pitching staff.
Tommy Milone didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning and surrendered just two runs over five innings to even his record at 2-2 and solidify his hold on a spot in the Twins' rotation. Taylor Rogers gave up just one hit and no runs in his two innings of relief. Neil Ramirez was hit for three runs in his two innings, but by then the game was long decided.
Minnesota scored five runs in the fifth inning, with Kepler's bases-loaded blast, a shot over the right-center wall, the biggest blow. Then the Twins erupted for seven runs, their biggest inning of the season, in the seventh against the mistake-prone Rangers and their beleaguered bullpen. Escobar launched a 400-foot home run deep into the seats in left-center, and Dozier followed with his 14th of the season, tying Miguel Sano for the team lead.
It was the ninth time the Twins have hit back-to-back home runs this season, an accomplishment they managed only twice in 2015.
Not only did every member of the Twins' starting lineup collect at least one hit, the second time in this series they've done that, but all nine starters scored at least once.
