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Murphy fuels Rangers past Twins

Apr 26, 2008 - 5:37 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- David Murphy helped end the Texas Rangers' long losing streak.

Murphy drilled a game-winning hit with two outs in the 10th inning Friday, lifting the Texas Rangers to a 6-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

With two on in the bottom of the 10th and the score tied at 5-5, Murphy drilled a pitch off Minnesota reliever Juan Rincon (2-1) into the left-center field gap to plate pinch-runner German Duran from second base.

"To come up with that win, to win an extra-inning game and to come back all in the same game, that's the kind of game you need to get out of a losing streak," Murphy said.

Josh Hamilton had two hits and two RBI and Hank Blalock also added an RBI double for Texas, which snapped a seven-game losing streak.

Justin Morneau hit his third career grand slam and drove in five runs for Minnesota, which has dropped three in a row.

Blalock led off the 10th with a towering double off the left field wall but came up hobbling as he slid into second base. Rookie Duran came in as a pinch runner.

Jason Botts walked to put men on first and second before Murphy sent Rincon's 13th pitch of the inning into left-center for the game-winner.

"Dave showed last year that he's a good player - and he's getting a chance this year and taking advantage of it," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "He's having good at-bats against both lefties and righties."

"We deserved to lose this game," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's frustrating to lose a game like that. We get up by five runs and then just shutdown after that. The guys were competitive, but we sure chased a lot of pitches."

Rangers reliever Joaquin Benoit (2-1) pitched the top of the 10th, allowing just one hit, to pick up the win.

Morneau, who had given the Twins an initial lead with an RBI single in the top of the first, belted a drive into the right-field seats with the bases loaded in the fourth to give Minnesota a 5-0 lead.

"I've always liked hitting here," Morneau said. "If you just get the ball up to right, it'll go out of here. In the (MetroDome), that ball would have been off the wall."

In the bottom half of the fourth, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young had run-scoring singles and Hamilton added a two-run single before an RBI double by Blalock knotted the score at 5-5.

"Over the course of the last week, there were times when we would get down early," Murphy said. "Tonight, there was nobody who wasn't confident."

All of the Rangers' runs in the inning came off Minnesota rookie starter Nick Blackburn, while Morneau did his damage against Texas starter Kevin Millwood.

"It happened fast," Blackburn said of his third-inning meltdown. "I was leaving balls up around their knees. I made five or six mistakes in a row and they capitalized on all of them."

Blackburn allowed five runs, 11 hits and a walk while striking out three in six innings. Millwood also gave up five runs along with eight hits and three walks while fanning six in six innings.

"Obviously, we had a rough stretch. It was miserable," Millwood said. "This was a big game."