Evan Carter’s sixth-inning plate appearance ended with the sort of administrative oddity baseball can produce without resolving the larger problem. With two outs, Ezequiel Duran on second and Jake Burger on first, Texas challenged for a hit-by-pitch. The review left Carter’s foul-tip strikeout in place. The inning was over, and the Rangers had converted a promising situation into no runs.
That was the shape of Texas’ 10-2 loss to Minnesota on Friday night at Target Field, after Texas had scored twice in the first and failed to add another run. The sixth did not decide the game by itself. Minnesota already led 8-2. But it was an opportunity to trim the margin before the Twins made the deficit still larger.
The chance had taken time to develop. Wyatt Langford began the inning by grounding out. Duran then singled. Nicky Lopez struck out for the second out, and Burger walked, moving Duran to second and bringing Carter to the plate. After the challenge, Carter’s at-bat ended on the foul tip. No runner advanced. Texas had two aboard, but the scoreboard did not budge.
It would be too convenient to call that the Rangers’ one great chance. They had another credible opening in the fifth, when Danny Jansen singled with one out and Alejandro Osuna was hit by a pitch. Corey Seager followed, but grounded out to finish the inning.
Texas had reached the hitter who drove in its first run, this time with two runners aboard against Joe Ryan. The later Carter sequence was significant because it was another chance wasted, not because it stood alone.
Ryan made those openings difficult to turn into anything larger. After Jake Burger ended the first inning with a forceout, the Minnesota right-hander retired 10 consecutive Rangers. Danny Jansen ended that stretch with a one-out single in the fifth.
Ryan then allowed Osuna to reach on a hit-by-pitch, but escaped when Seager grounded out. In the sixth, he gave up Duran’s single and Burger’s walk yet still finished the frame without surrendering a run.
Ryan’s line—six innings, four hits, two runs, eight strikeouts and one walk—shows why Texas could not simply wait for another gift. He hit three Rangers, including Josh Jung in the first and Osuna in the fifth, so his control was not pristine. Still, the Rangers’ traffic remained scattered rather than productive.
They collected six hits, two walks and three hit-by-pitches, stranded seven runners and scored only in the first inning. Jung scored after being hit in the first; the other four batters who reached on walks or hit-by-pitches did not come home. The opportunities extended beyond the Rangers’ six hits, but the scoring did not extend beyond the opening inning.
Minnesota immediately charged the Rangers for leaving the sixth unfinished. Ryan Kreidler struck out to begin the bottom half, then Luke Keaschall singled. Brooks Lee flied out.
