Carlos Santana hit a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning and the visiting Minnesota Twins held on for a 3-2 win against the Texas Rangers in the opener of their four-game series on Thursday night in Arlington, Texas.
Willi Castro homered and Kyle Farmer had two hits and scored a run for Minnesota, which has won three of four.
Twins right-hander Bailey Ober allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked three in his 10th straight quality start.
Griffin Jax pitched a scoreless seventh, Jorge Alcala (3-3) did the same in the eighth and Jhoan Duran worked the ninth for his 17th save.
Adolis García had three hits and Marcus Semien recorded two for Texas, which has lost four of five.
Rangers starter Cody Bradford allowed two runs and six hits in six innings. The left-hander, who is in his second season in the majors, struck out two and walked two on a career-high 104 pitches.
Jose Leclerc and Walter Pennington threw scoreless innings before the Twins scored off closer Kirby Yates (4-2) in the ninth.
Yates issued back-to-back one-out walks to No. 9 hitter Matt Wallner and Manuel Margot before a wild pitch put runners on second and third for Santana, who lifted the sacrifice fly to right for a 3-2 lead.
Semien led off the first inning by reaching on an infield single. Castro made a backhanded stop in the hole at short, but he lost his footing preparing to make the throw. After a walk and a flyout, Garcia lined a single up the middle to score Semien for a 1-0 lead.
Another walk to Wyatt Langford loaded the bases for Josh Jung, who lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 2-0.
Castro homered over the fence in left to lead off the second inning and trim the deficit to 2-1. It was the 10th homer of the season for Castro, a career high.
Farmer then circled the bases when his drive off the wall in left-center field took an odd carom and the ball continued up the warning track along the wall.
Leody Taveras chased after the ball and then had trouble picking it up, allowing Farmer to continue home and tie the score 2-2. The play was ruled a triple and an error by Taveras.
–Field Level Media
