In a game the Twins had two ejections over disagreements with the strike zone and the benches cleared after two batters were plunked, the Twins were seemingly at their best.
Matt Wallner hit a three-run triple in the first inning. Edouard Julien and Carlos Correa homered in a six-run seventh inning. In between the big hits, Sonny Gray delivered one of his better starts of the season in a 12-2 rout over the Rangers on Friday at Target Field.
Call it a night that featured a little bit of everything.
Rangers starting pitcher Dane Dunning issued four walks in the bottom of the first inning and had an opportunity to pitch out of it without giving up a run because of a double play. Wallner refused to let that happen and hammered a down-the-middle changeup into the right field corner for the first triple of his major league career.
Ryan Jeffers followed with an RBI single that bounced over the first-base bag, giving the Twins a four-run lead during Dunning’s 35-pitch first inning.
Dunning lasted only four innings and finished with a career-high six walks, but the Twins felt home-plate umpire Carlos Torres cost them a chance to add to their lead. After back-to-back hits from Max Kepler and Royce Lewis in the third inning, Wallner visibly disagreed with a high fastball that turned into his called third strike. Following a hit batter that set the stage for more fireworks, Joey Gallo was called out on strikes.
A high strike during Gallo’s at-bat, the second pitch, caused the dugout to erupt and Gallo to shout in anger. Gallo was ejected after his at-bat ended and manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected when he came out with his lineup card and it turned into a longer conversation afterward.
Jeffers, who hit a go-ahead two-run homer during the eighth inning in Thursday’s win complete with a bat flip, was hit by a fastball with two outs in the third inning. Jeffers took some exception to it, immediately glaring out to the mound. Jeffers said something to Rangers catcher Mitch Garver, his former teammate, before walking toward first base.
In the next inning, Gray plunked Garver with a first-pitch fastball when there was nobody on base. Garver, who hit a solo homer in the second inning, stood in front of the plate to say something to Gray. Home-plate umpire Carlos Torres immediately ran in front of Garver as Gray made a motion with his right hand. The dugouts and bullpens emptied, though there were no physical altercations.
Once the high temperatures cooled, it was all Gray. The Twins starting pitcher permitted one run in seven innings, matching his longest start of the season.
Gray received some help from his defense — a diving stop by Correa in the fourth inning and a leaping catch at the wall by Wallner in the sixth inning — but he constantly landed his offspeed pitches for strikes and didn’t allow any walks.
The Twins turned the game into a laugher when they batted around their lineup in the seventh inning. Correa hit a no-doubter homer to left field, looking toward his teammates in the dugout as soon as he connected with the pitch. The rally continued with a two-out RBI single from Solano before Julien launched his 11th home run of the season to center field.
Texas, which lost its eighth straight game, turned to a position player, Austin Hedges, to pitch in the eighth inning. The first batter Hedges faced, Max Kepler, hit a 396-foot home run.