ARLINGTON, Texas _ The Twins were down six runs and weren't doing much at the plate against Rangers right-hander Drew Hutchinson on Friday.
Then a switch was flipped, and the offense heated up more than the mid-90s temperatures.
The first five batters of the fifth inning reached base, the first of 11 plate appearances by the Twins in that inning. During that run they tied a season high with eight runs to snatch the lead from the Rangers, and they went on to a 10-7 victory at Globe Life Park.
The Twins have scored eight runs in an inning two other times this season, April 11 against Huston at Target Field then July 8 against Baltimore, also at Target Field.
Tyler Austin started it off with a leadoff home run to right field, to put the Twins on the board, but trailing 6-1. Ehire Adrianza and Joe Mauer singled, followed by a two-run double by Jorge Polanco. That made it 6-3 and ended Hutchinson's night. Robbie Grossman drew a walk against reliever Matt Moore, then Max Kepler hit a single to left to lead the bases for Mitch Garver. Garver then blasted a knuckle curve to the gap in left center that cleared the bases and tied the game at 6-6.
The Twins weren't done yet. Moore left a fastball over the heart of the plate to Jake Cave, and Cave put his uppercut swing on it, launching it to right for a two-run home run and 8-6 Twins lead. The ball traveled an estimated 417 feet.
In one inning, the Twins scored as many runs as they did during their entire three-game series in Cleveland earlier in the week. And they did it without their most productive player in the lineup. Eddie Rosario sat out with a sore right quadriceps and could miss the remaining five games of the road trip.
Garver added a RBI double in the seventh then scored on a double play.
Every Twins starter reached base at least once. The only Twins starter not to have an impact on the game was starting pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, who was knocked out of the game in the fourth inning.
After getting just four outs in his major-league debut on Aug. 20, Gonsalves lasted five innings five days later, and there was hope he could take another step forward.
"He's got pitches, he's got deception," Twins manager Paul Molitor said before the game. "It's nice that he's got off-speed weapons. And we saw in his last start that when he was being able to get that change-up over. It was a big difference in the outcome of a lot of the at-bats. So hopefully he's got the command working and gets the game off to a good start for us."
That wasn't the case Friday. Gonsalves threw first pitch strikes to only seven of the 22 batters he faced. He gave up a two-run double to Jurickson Profar in the third followed by four runs in the fourth, including a three-run homer by Nomar Mazara right after pitching coach Garvin Alston went to the mound for a pep talk. But the inning should have been over before that. With two outs and a man on, Mauer stumbled after fielding a grounder and couldn't feed the ball to Gonsalves, who was covering first, allowing a run to score. Polanco then booted a ground ball by Elvis Andrus, putting two on for Mazara. Gonsalves then laid a fastball over the plate for Mazara.
But Gonsalves watched his offense take him off the hook in the sixth. The Twins bullpen shut out Texas until the ninth, when Trevor Hildenberger walked two and gave up a run but retired Joey Gallo with a runner on for the final out.
