MINNEAPOLIS _ The mid-50s temperatures suggested football weather, and so did the late-September-sized crowd in Target Field. The Twins may be intent upon proving their front office wrong, may be determined to create a hot streak that carries them back into playoff contention. But on Thursday, they sure made it feel like winter is on its way.
The Twins' offense, in fact, appears in hibernation already.
Texas right-hander A.J. Griffin faced only three batters in five of the six innings he pitched, allowing just three baserunners in that time, and the Twins fell even further back in the AL Central race, losing 4-1 to the Rangers.
Another sure sign of September? Using extra players who weren't in the team's plans when the season started. August may be only three days old, but the Twins debuted veteran right-hander Dillon Gee on Thursday, bringing their roster of pitchers used in 2017 to 30 _ a franchise record. True, the old mark of 29 stood for only 10 months, having been set late last season, but it's an accurate representation of the constant scramble the Twins have undertaken this season to locate major league pitchers.
Gee, though, was effective in his Twins' debut, pitching three scoreless innings before surrendering back-to-back singles to open the eighth inning. The pitcher he relieved, though, couldn't really say the same. Adalberto Mejia, who had allowed two or fewer runs in six of his last eight starts, was inconsistent this time, and right from the start. He gave up a walk and two singles to fall behind 1-0 before he retired a single hitter, but bounced back by whiffing the next five hitters in a row.
A double play worked Mejia out of trouble in the third, but the Rangers batted around in the fourth inning, scoring three runs after two were out. A Mike Napoli double and a walk to Carlos Gomez got the lefthander in trouble, and Joey Gallo made things worse. Mejia got ahead 0-2 with a pair of slow sliders, but when he keep feeding sliders to the Rangers' second-year slugger, Gallo finally made him pay.
The last of them landed about 420 feet away, in the upper deck in right-center, his 29th blast of the season, but just the 12th that Mejia has allowed.
For the trouble the Twins' pitching caused, though, the real culprit lately remains the Twins' offense, which entered the game scoreless after the fifth inning in its last seven games. This time, the malaise at the plate began right from the start, with Griffin facing only 20 batters, two over the minimum, in his six-inning stint.
Only a walk to Robbie Grossman to lead off the third inning cost Griffin; Byron Buxton slapped a double into the left-field corner, and Grossman sprinted home from first base.
The Twins fans in the stands on such a cool night _ the actual crowd was noticeably smaller than the 22,903 announced attendance _ gave a warm reception to Adrian Beltre when he batted in the first inning. Beltre became the 31st member of the 3,000-hit club last Sunday, a club that Twins manager Paul Molitor joined in 1996.
"I'm looking forward to shaking his hand. It's a good group, a lot of really good friends of mine are in that group," Molitor said before the game. "I don't really know Adrian particularly well, we've had a couple of conversations along the way, but he's always been very gracious. He seems very aware of the history of the game and respects the people that have traversed through the game."
