Royce Lewis’s clutch performances continued as he drove in four runs but two homers from Mitch Garver and a walk-off bomb by Adolis Garcia helped the Texas Rangers avoid a weekend sweep as they defeated the Twins on Sunday afternoon.
Garver struck early for the Rangers as they put two runners on in the bottom of the first inning against Twins starter Kenta Maeda. With Garver at the plate, he smashed a fastball just over the left field wall to give Texas a 3-0 lead.
Maeda settled down from there, allowing three runs on nine hits and two walks over five innings and it helped Lewis tie the game with a three-run homer in the top of the fifth inning.
One swing of the bat…#MNTwins pic.twitter.com/B6sXqXRWE4
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) September 3, 2023
The Twins gave the lead back to the Rangers in the bottom of the sixth inning after a wild pitch by Cole Sands allowed Marcus Semien to score but Minnesota tied the game in the top of the seventh inning on an RBI single by Carlos Correa.
With Sands returning for the bottom of the seventh inning, he served up a 426-foot solo home run to Garver, which put the Rangers back in front but Lewis delivered again with an RBI single in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game at 5-5.
After going scoreless in the top of the ninth inning, Josh Winder faced Garcia to lead off the bottom of the ninth and launched a fastball into the upper deck in right field to give the Rangers the win.
Lewis finished 3-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. Correa went 3-for-5 with an RBI but also grounded into his league-leading 29th double play in the top of the eighth inning. Edouard Julien went 2-for-3 with a double, Max Kepler went 1-for-4, Matt Wallner went 1-for-3 and Andrew Stevenson went 1-for-3.
With the loss, the Twins fall to 71-66 and will open a three-game series with the Cleveland Guardians on Monday night.
