For the Rangers, the wait for another extra-base hit began before the first inning was over. Brandon Nimmo’s leadoff double was Texas’ only hit that reached beyond first base Friday night, and the lineup spent the rest of a 10-2 loss to Minnesota trying to make singles do a double’s job.
That is a difficult assignment when the opponent is producing the sort of contact that changes an inning immediately. Minnesota scored with a triple in the second, a double in the fourth and a home run in the sixth. Texas had six hits overall, but five were singles, and none supplied the same sudden change in base occupancy.
The opening inning showed what the Rangers needed and then failed to repeat. Nimmo doubled, Josh Jung was hit by a pitch, and Corey Seager singled Nimmo home while moving Jung to third. Wyatt Langford’s groundout brought Jung in. Two runs arrived because Texas connected several modest events before Minnesota could escape.
After that, the hits came one at a time. In the fifth, Danny Jansen singled, Nimmo struck out and Alejandro Osuna was hit by a pitch, but Seager grounded out to end the inning. In the sixth, Ezequiel Duran singled with one out.
Nicky Lopez struck out for the second out, Jake Burger walked, and Evan Carter finished the inning with a foul-tip strikeout after the Rangers’ challenge seeking a hit-by-pitch ruling failed. The Rangers had two runners aboard, but only with two outs, and the chance ended there.
Those five non-hit baserunners—two walks and three hit-by-pitches—made the final line more complicated than a simple “Minnesota pitching dominated” explanation. Texas did get people on base. It just rarely got the kind of hit that made those people matter together. The Rangers stranded seven and finished with two double plays, further shrinking the value of isolated traffic.
Joe Ryan deserves credit for making the opening damage hold up. After Texas’ first-inning forceout, he retired the next 10 Rangers in order, a run that began with the second-inning outs and continued through the fourth before Carter struck out to open the fifth. Jansen’s one-out single finally interrupted it. Ryan finished six innings with four hits allowed, two runs, eight strikeouts and one walk.
The Rangers did not simply stop reaching base once Ryan’s streak ended. Justin Foscue singled as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, but Seager struck out behind him. Langford walked to begin the eighth, and Duran’s double play erased him.
Burger singled to start the ninth, only for a replay-overturned call to complete another double play on Cody Freeman’s grounder. These were separate opportunities, not one sustained rally.
