Rangers recap: Moreland’s career-day powers Texas past Twins

The Rangers rallied from a four-run hole and held on to beat the Twins 6-5 Thursday afternoon at Target Field to prevent a sweep and stay within striking distance of a wild-card berth. Minnesota took the first two games of the series and remain a half-game ahead of Texas in the wild-card standings.

Pitching: Chi Chi Gonzalez made his first start for the Rangers since July 3 After striking out Miguel Sano looking to start the second, the next five Twins reached with a hit, including a Trevor Plouffe homer, and doubles by Chris Hermann and Shane Robinson to give Minnesota a 4-0 lead. Gonzalez settled down and had a 1-2-3 third. Gonzalez retired 10 of 11 batters after the second but walked two in the fifth and was replaced by Keone Kela with two outs to face Aaron Hicks. Hicks battled Kela before singling up the middle on the seventh pitch, scoring Escobar. Robinson also tried to score on the play but center fielder Delino DeShields threw him out at home to end the inning with the game tied 5-5.

Gonzalez was charged with five earned run on five hits and five walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Mauer singled off Kela with one out in the seventh and moved to second on a sac fly but a groundout to short ended the inning. Jake Diekman pitched a perfect eighth and Shawn Tolleson pitched the ninth to earn his 21st save.

Hitting: Mitch Moreland followed an Adrian Beltre single with a two-run homer to the upper deck in right field to cut the Twins’ lead to 4-2 in the fourth. In the fifth, Ryan Strausborger led off with a single and moved to second on Delino DeShields’ sacrifice bunt. He scored on Prince Fielder’s two-out single off the wall in right. Beltre followed with a single up the middle. He and Fielder both scored on Moreland’s double high off the wall in the right-center to make give Texas a 5-4 lead.

In the eighth, Beltre and Moreland singled to start the inning. Beltre moved to third on Moreland’s single to right. Elvis Andrus fell behind 0-2 but stayed alive and sent the seventh pitchc he saw to center field for a sacrifice fly and scored Beltre with the go-ahead run.

Notable: Moreland homered for the first time since July 11 ... Morealand’s four RBI gives him 61 in 2015, a single-season career-high ... his four hits are a career-high ... Beltre had three hits, his first multi-hit game since he hit for the cycle on Aug. 3 ... it’s the 199th three-hit game of Beltr’s career ... Beltre was 3 for his previous 27 before Thursday.

This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: Moreland’s career-day powers Texas past Twins."