Carlos Correa, Edouard Julien and Max Kepler homered and Sonny Gray allowed one run over seven innings to pick up his seventh win as the Minnesota Twins handed the Texas Rangers their eighth consecutive loss, 12-2, on Friday night in Minneapolis.
Matt Wallner had a bases-clearing triple and a double while scoring three times with three RBIs in the rout. Ryan Jeffers and Donovan Solano each had two hits and two RBIs and Royce Lewis singled, walked twice and scored two runs for Minnesota.
Gray (7-6) allowed six hits and struck out four. He didn't walk a batter but hit Mitch Garver, who had homered earlier, in the hip with a pitch in the fourth. Garver took a step toward the mound before being ushered toward first by home plate umpire Carlos Torres as both benches emptied briefly. No players were ejected, though two batters earlier Twins center fielder Joey Gallo and manager Rocco Baldelli were both tossed for arguing a called third strike to end the previous inning.
Leody Taveras had two doubles while Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe each had two hits for Texas. Dane Dunning (9-6) suffered the loss, allowing four runs on five hits and six walks. He struck out six.
Minnesota jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning taking advantage of Dunning's wildness in the process. Four batters walked in the inning, setting the stage for a bases-loaded triple by Wallner into the right field corner that gave the Twins a 3-0 lead. Jeffers then singled in Wallner to make it 4-0.
Texas cut it to 4-1 in the second when Garver led off with his 11th home run just over the glove of Wallner at the left field wall.
The Twins broke the game open with a six-run seventh that featured a leadoff homer by Correa, RBI singles by Jeffers and Solano and a 435-foot, three-run homer by Julien into the second deck in right-center.
The Rangers cut it to 10-2 in the eighth on an RBI single by Lowe. The Twins answered with two runs in the bottom half against catcher Austin Hedges, including Kepler's 21st homer of the season to lead off the inning and another RBI hit by Solano.
—Field Level Media