MINNEAPOLIS — For all the Twins have rued their seeming bad luck so far in 2021, the fates certainly seemed on their side Wednesday.
From balls the only just rolled foul to good bounces to overturned home run calls, the Twins had plenty of breaks come their way against the Texas Rangers.
But it still wasn't enough. The Twins wasted a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation and never really threatened again in a 3-1 loss before an announced crowd of 7,853 at Target Field.
Mitch Garver put the Twins ahead in the second inning, hitting his sixth home run of the season 429 feet toward left center field. But that was it for the offense.
The Rangers tied it in the fourth inning with Joey Gallo's groundout scoring Nick Solak. That came after Tuesday night hero Adolis Garcia had a three-run homer down the right field line reversed on replay — the ball was just foul. Garcia then struck out.
Two innings later, Texas again put runners on first and third with nobody out against Lewis Thorpe, making his second start of the year for the Twins. Cody Stashak came in for the left-hander, and the go-ahead run scored when his wild pitch bounced up off Garver's catcher's mask, enabling Solak to come home from third base. A sacrifice fly from Andy Ibanez, who made his MLB debut for Texas on Tuesday, brought the margin to two runs as Nate Lowe scored.
One of the Twins' receipts for their abnormally unlucky start to the year has to do with personnel, as the team has hardly played with its first-choice opening day lineup all together. Wednesday, the Twins activated Miguel Sano from the injured list, but he took the roster spot of red-hot rookie Alex Kirilloff, who landed on the injured list because of a wrist sprain.
Sano, having recovered from a hamstring injury, reclaimed his position in Kirilloff's absence. And while he struck out in his first plate appearance Wednesday, he did nab a groundball single in the seventh inning, drew a two-out walk off Ian Kennedy in the ninth after falling behind 0-2 in the count and also made a diving play to cut off a line drive and prevent a run from scoring.
In five-plus innings, Thorpe gave up five hits, three earned runs and a walk while striking out two. Texas starter Hyeon-Jong Yang went 3 1/3 innings — recording eight strikeouts among his 10 outs. Outside of Garver's home run, Yang cruised in his first three innings.
But in the fourth, Nelson Cruz led off with a single, then went to third on Kyle Garlick's double. Mitch Garver then walked to load the bases. Yang struck out Jorge Polanco, and then Texas went to reliever John King. He induced a fielder's choice from Max Kepler to retire Cruz at home, and then got out of the inning by getting Sano to ground into a force play.
Alexander Colome, looking to regain his form after a rough start to his Twins career, pitched two shutout innings. But it wasn't enough for the Twins, who struck out 15 times in all and fell to 11-18 and 3-3 on this homestand with Thursday's afternoon finale still to come.
