Twins Top Rangers To Avoid 4-Game Sweep
ARLINGTON (AP) - Ben Revere had four hits, Cole De Vries won for the first time in nearly two months and the Minnesota Twins held off the Texas Rangers 6-5 Sunday to snap a five-game losing streak.
The Twins avoided getting swept in the four-game series. They finished a 10-game road trip with a 2-8 record.
Josh Hamilton hit his 35th homer for Texas and drove in four runs, giving him a major league-leading 111 RBIs.
De Vries (3-5) was 0-4 in 10 starts since beating Kansas City on June 30. The right-hander gave up two runs and struck out five in five innings. He allowed three hits, none after the opening inning, and retired his final 12 batters.
De Vries threw five pitches in the first before the umpires stopped the game because of steady rain. After a delay of 1 hour, 26 minutes, Texas jumped on De Vries.
The AL West leaders got three straight singles after play resumed, capped by Hamilton's two-run hit that put Texas on top 2-1.
De Vries, who threw seven scoreless innings against Texas on July 8, retired 15 of the next 16 he faced. The only batter to reach was Geovany Soto, who struck out but got to first on a passed ball.
Minnesota's starting pitching had been battered in the first three games of the series, giving up 18 earned runs and 24 hits in 9 2-3 innings.
Relievers Casey Fien and Jared Burton each pitched a scoreless inning and Glen Perkins worked a perfect ninth for his seventh save in 10 chances.
Scott Feldman (6-10) lost his fourth straight start. He gave up six runs and 10 hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Revere lined an RBI triple in the sixth that gave the Twins a 6-2 lead. The speedy right fielder reached base five times and scored three runs.
Hamilton hit a two-run homer off Jeff Gray and Nelson Cruz added a solo shot two batters later to bring Texas within 6-5 in the sixth.
Texas center fielder Craig Gentry took a home run away from Joe Mauer in the ninth. Gentry went back to the nearly 9-foot wall, jumped up and snared the drive before it cleared the fence.
The Twins a took the lead for good with an unearned run in the third as first baseman Mitch Moreland and third baseman Adrian Beltre committed errors. Justin Morneau's sacrifice fly to shallow left, which Hamilton dropped while transferring the ball from his glove, put the Twins ahead 3-2.
Mauer and Trevor Plouffe had RBI singles in the fifth that extended Minnesota's lead to 5-2.
Revere walked and scored on Josh Willingham's double in the first. The Twins tied the game at 2 in the second on Pedro Florimon's groundout.
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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