Minnesota Twins score early and often in drubbing of Texas Rangers

Kody Clemens went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer and a double as the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 12-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.

Trevor Larnach finished 4-for-6 with a solo homer for Minnesota, which has earned back-to-back wins to open the three-game series. Royce Lewis and Josh Bell drove in two runs apiece.

Ezequiel Duran and Elias Diaz notched one RBI each for Texas.

Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews (3-4) limited the Rangers to two runs on eight hits in seven innings. He issued no walks and struck out four.

Rangers right-hander Kumar Rocker (2-6) allowed seven runs (six earned) on seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked two, fanned four and surrendered a pair of homers.

The Twins finished with 17 hits, compared to eight for the Rangers.

Minnesota jumped to a 10-0 lead before the end of the fourth inning.

Larnach led off the game with a homer. Bell increased the Twins' lead to 2-0 later in the inning with a single that drove in Byron Buxton.

The Twins pulled ahead 5-0 in the third. Clemens belted a three-run homer to right that also scored Larnach and Buxton.

Minnesota doubled its lead in the fourth.

Lewis started the scoring in the big inning with a two-run single. That put runners on first and third for Bell, who delivered a double that knocked in a run, and another scored on an error on the same play.

Luke Keaschall boosted the gap to 10-0 with a single that scored Bell.

Texas got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. Duran grounded into an RBI fielder's choice as Wyatt Langford sprinted home.

The Rangers added a run in the fifth to cut the deficit to 10-2. Diaz ripped a double to deep center to score Alejandro Osuna.

Alex Jackson joined the high-scoring party for the Twins with an RBI double in the ninth. Kyler Fedko capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly for his first big-league RBI.

--Field Level Media