Danny Jansen went 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs, and the Texas Rangers jumped ahead early in their 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday evening in Minneapolis.
Jake Burger also homered for Texas (80-81), which continues to hold serve in its bid to knock off the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West division. The Astros need to beat the Athletics Saturday evening to remain atop the division.
Evan Carter and Alejandro Osuna each finished with two hits and an RBI for Texas.
Kody Clemens and Josh Bell had one RBI apiece for Minnesota (76-85).
Rangers left-hander Robert Garcia (2-1) earned the victory with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief. He followed starter Nathan Eovaldi, who allowed one run on four hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Twins right-hander Bailey Ober (7-7) surrendered six runs on 10 hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out five.
The Twins opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Luke Keaschall hit a leadoff double, advanced to third on a groundout by Brooks Lee and scored on an RBI groundout by Clemens.
The Rangers answered with a four-run outburst in the second, scoring all of the runs after the first two batters of the inning were retired.
Nicky Lopez started the rally with a double. He scored one batter later as Jansen singled and Alan Roden committed a throwing error in left field.
Carter put the Rangers on top 2-1 with an RBI double to right in the next at-bat. Osuna followed with an RBI double, and Nimmo capped the big inning with another RBI double to make it 4-1.
Texas made it 5-1 when Jansen led off the fourth with a 398-foot homer to left.
The power surge continued in the fifth. Burger hit a 415-foot solo shot to center to increase the Rangers’ lead to 6-1.
The Twins pulled within 6-2 in the eighth when Bell’s RBI single followed Keaschall’s leadoff triple.
Before the game, the Rangers placed third baseman Josh Jung on the injured list and recalled catcher Logan O’Hoppe from Triple-A Round Rock. Jung was hit on the wrist by a pitch in the first inning of Friday’s 10-2 loss.
The start of the game was delayed two hours because of rain.
