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Twins use ninth-inning comeback to top Rangers

Sep 18, 2007 - 5:32 AM By Anthony Maggio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Ian Kinsler said he's caught the same short flare the same way a thousand times. Too bad he couldn't make it 1,001.

Kinsler dropped Jason Bartlett's short bloop to right field with two outs in the ninth inning, allowing Lew Ford to score from second base and give the Minnesota Twins a 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday.

Joe Nathan (4-2) earned the win despite giving up the go-ahead run on a home run in the ninth inning for the Twins, who snapped a four-game losing streak.

"Careless," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Anybody can make a mistake, I'm just faulting the carelessness. If everything was right in the way he tried to secure that ball and then he drops it, that's the way it goes.

"Sometimes, he has a habit of thinking everything is easy, and it cost us because of carelessness."

Kinsler ran back to short right field to make the play but arrived in plenty of time to catch the ball. Washington said afterwards that Kinsler should have caught the ball above his eyes rather than attempting to make the catch just above his hip.

Kinsler said he did not have time to get under it and tried to make the catch how he felt comfortable.

"I wouldn't even call this a mental error," Kinsler said. "It was kind of a freak thing. It's not like I was thinking about something else or concentrating on something else, it's just one of those things that happens in baseball. I just dropped it."

The dropped capped off a wild final three innings, as the Twins lost a one-run lead only to tie up the game, fall behind again, then win it in the ninth.

The back-and-forth ending started in the top of the seventh inning when Juan Rincon relieved Twins starter Kevin Slowey to start the frame. Rincon couldn't handle Brad Wilkerson's bunt that was ruled a single, and Guillermo Quiroz singled him home after Wilkerson stole second.

Ramon Vazquez attempted a sacrifice bunt to move Quiroz to third, but Rincon threw wildly - attempting to make a play on Quiroz - allowing him to score to give the Rangers a 3-2 advantage.

Minnesota got a single from Bartlett to start off the eighth inning, moved him to second on Luis Rodriguez's sacrifice bunt, setting up Torii Hunter's two-out RBI single to tie the game off Rangers reliever C.J. Wilson.

But Texas took the lead again in the ninth when Travis Metcalf hit a one-out solo home run off Nathan.

A night after earning the save against Oakland, Joaquin Benoit (7-4) hung a slider to Michael Cuddyer to lead off the ninth, and Cuddyer crushed it into the left-field seats to tie the game at 4-4.

"There's no excuse," Benoit said. "You've got one inning to get three outs, there's no excuse to give up a home run. You need to go with your best stuff. I made the wrong choice, and I paid for it."

Ford followed with a walk, Brian Buscher sacrificed him to second base, and he scored two batters later on Kinsler's error.

"I think we both wanted to win it," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "I think we just screwed it up enough times that it made things real entertaining."

Joe Mauer also homered for the Twins, hitting his first blast since July 21 off Rangers starter Edinson Volquez in the sixth inning. Volquez matched career highs by tossing six innings and recording six strikeouts.

Slowey yielded a run and four hits in six frames with no walks and a career-high seven strikeouts. It was his first start without allowing a home run in his career.

Bartlett and Cuddyer both had two hits for the Twins, who have won five of their last six against the Rangers. Minnesota also snapped a seven-game home losing streak.

"That's what we've been doing all this year, just trying to fight back," Hunter said. "It paid off this time. It feels good to win a game."

Quiroz had his fourth career multi-hit game and his first since October 1, 2004 as a member of the Blue Jays. The Rangers have lost six of their last seven games overall.