Kody Clemens went 2-for-4 with a double, a homer and three RBIs, and the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 12-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas.
Trevor Larnach finished 4-for-6 with a solo homer for Minnesota, which has earned back-to-back wins to open the three-game series. Royce Lewis and Josh Bell drove in two runs apiece.
Ezequiel Duran and Elias Diaz notched one RBI each for Texas.
Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews (3-4) limited the Rangers to two runs on eight hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out four.
Rangers right-hander Kumar Rocker (2-6) allowed seven runs (six earned) on seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked two, struck out four and surrendered a pair of homers.
The Twins finished with 17 hits, compared to eight for the Rangers.
Minnesota jumped to a 10-0 lead before the end of the fourth inning.
Larnach opened the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the first. Bell increased the Twins’ lead to 2-0 later in the inning with an RBI single that drove in Byron Buxton.
The Twins pulled ahead 5-0 in the third. Clemens belted a three-run homer to right that also scored Buxton and Larnach.
Minnesota doubled its lead to make it 10-0 in the fourth.
Lewis started the big inning with a two-run single. That put runners on first and third for Bell, who delivered with a two-run double to make it 9-0.
Luke Keaschall finished the scoring with an RBI single to score Bell and push the lead to double figures.
Texas got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. Duran grounded into an RBI fielder’s choice as Wyatt Langford sprinted home to score.
The Rangers added a run in the fifth to cut the deficit to 10-2. Diaz ripped a double to deep center to score Alejandro Osuna.
Alex Jackson joined the high-scoring day for the Twins with an RBI double in the ninth. Kyler Fedko capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly for his first big-league RBI.
