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Minnesota was nearly no-hit in a 4-0 road loss to the Rangers at the Ballpark in Arlington last night, but the team has still won eight of 11 and 21 of 28 games.\u00a0 The Twins carry a 4 1\/2-game lead into tonight\u2019s contest and hopes for a better offensive performance in the second game of the series, as they were one-hit for the 24th time in club history on Monday. \u201cYou definitely don\u2019t want to get no-hit,\u201d All-Star catcher Joe Mauer said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s nice to get a hit up there but we want runs.\u201d\u00a0 The club is now 17-7 against the AL West division and will look to improve upon its 11-7 mark on Tuesdays this evening.\u00a0 The staff ERA of 2.76 against the division is the lowest of any American League team and the team was 19-21 versus the division in 2009.\u00a0 Minnesota is a solid 14-7 in August (+610) and the total is 10-11 O\/U in those contests.\u00a0 The Twins have played six games after being shutout this season, posting an even 3-3 mark (-210) and a 9-9 record over the last three years (-160).<\/p>\n
Twins starting pitcher Carl Pavano is 15-8 with a 3.52 ERA in 25 starts this season and is coming off one of his worst career starts.\u00a0 In his last outing, he allowed seven runs and a season-high 15 hits in six innings, while the club dropped an 11-0 home contest to the White Sox.\u00a0 The right-hander is 8-4 with a 3.13 ERA in 13 road starts, issuing just 16 walks and collecting 53 punch outs in 92 frames.\u00a0 He has produced a 5-2 record and 3.35 ERA in seven second half starts, after compiling a 10-6 mark and 3.58 ERA before the All-Star break.\u00a0 In four lifetime starts versus the Rangers, Pavano is 1-2 with a 9.00 ERA, but picked up an 8-3 home victory on May 29th against them.\u00a0 He allowed two runs and seven hits over seven innings in that contest.<\/p>\n
Texas moved its division lead to 8 1\/2 games with a victory in the series opener and the club is well on its way to a division title with just over six weeks remaining in the season.\u00a0 The team has also bounced back nicely from a four-game skid by winning three of its last four games overall.\u00a0 The Rangers are 3-3 after shutting out an opponent this season (-50) and 10-15 in this situation over the last three campaigns (-510).\u00a0 It\u2019s also important to note that the club is a dominating 40-23 in Arlington (+20) and the total is 29-30 O\/U in those games.\u00a0 Texas has improved its performance against winning ball clubs since the All-Star break, producing a 16-10 record (+480), but is still just 24-27 on the season (-750).<\/p>\n
Rangers starting pitcher Colby Lewis is 9-10 with a 3.37 ERA in 24 starts this season, but the team has dropped six consecutive games with him on the hill.\u00a0 In those outings, the offense has managed to provide just seven runs of support.\u00a0 The right-hander is 0-3 with a 3.20 ERA in four starts this month, giving up just a single home run while striking out 29 batters and issuing just seven walks.\u00a0 He will be making his 11th home start, compiling a 5-3 record and 2.95 ERA compared to a losing 4-7 record and 3.66 ERA on the road.\u00a0 In six career appearances (two starts) against the Twins, Lewis is a winless 0-2 with a 4.40 ERA, issuing 10 walks and collecting just six strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Bettors will need to know that the Twins are 7-1 in Pavano\u2019s last eight road starts and 7-3 in his last 10 starts as an underdog away from the Twin Cities.\u00a0 On the other side of the field, Texas is 5-1 in its last six home games versus a right-handed starter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
American League division leaders square off in the second game of a crucial series at the Ballpark in Arlington. Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers Minnesota was nearly no-hit in a 4-0 road loss to the Rangers at the Ballpark in Arlington last night, but the team has still won eight of 11 and 21 of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1357,2004,2605,990,240,771],"class_list":["post-6529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-al-west","tag-carl-pavano","tag-colby-lewis","tag-joe-mauer","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6530,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions\/6530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}