The Rangers look to finish off a sweep against a team that they could matchup against during postseason play.
Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
Minnesota still leads the AL Central division by 3 1/2 games despite being in a position of getting swept for the first time since dropping three straight at Milwaukee from June 22-24. It’s the first time that the Twins have lost three straight games since July 7-10 when the club lost four in a row. The Twins had won 21 of 27 before arriving in Arlington, but the offense has managed to produce just six runs in this series. “We were swinging good coming into this series, but they’ve pretty much shut us down,” said Jason Kubel. The three losses to the Rangers in this series has now dropped the team a half-game behind them in the standings, which would be important in establishing home-field advantage in the playoffs. The club is still 14-8 in August (+510) and come in with a 25-18 mark against left-handed starters (+540). The Twins have also posted a .273 batting average against southpaws this season, which is the second highest average in the AL.
Los Angeles comes into this series having a chance to gain ground on the AL West Division leaders, as they currently sit five games back of the Texas Rangers. “We’ve been sitting four, five games back for a while now,” tonight’s starter Jered Weaver said. “When you’re playing those games, you pick up a game or lose one. Simple as that.” The Angels are now 4-2 since the All-Star break after dropping the series finale against the New York Yankees on Wednesday afternoon and the team is 7-10 this month (-380), after losing just nine games in June (18-9). The team trails 3-2 in the season series against Texas, as four of the five meetings this year have been one-run affairs. Los Angeles has dropped eight of the last 11 meetings in Arlington.
