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Twins, Rangers continue set at Target Field

Jun 10, 2011 - 3:01 PM (Sports Network) - The Minnesota Twins try to continue their home mastery of the Texas Rangers this evening when the two teams continue a four-game set at Target Field.

Although the Rangers captured their first-ever American League pennant a year ago, they lost all six games they played in Minnesota. Nothing seems to have changed this year, either, as the Twins pulled out an exciting win to start this series on Thursday to beat the Rangers for the eighth straight time in their ballpark.

"We just go game-by-game," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We can't try to look at the numbers, they don't mesh, they don't match. The task becomes too big when you start looking at all the daunting numbers they throw out there. We just have to go game-by-game and win game-by-game and go from there. That's all we can do."

Alexi Casilla drove in Luke Hughes with the game-winning run in the ninth inning, giving the Twins a 5-4 victory.

Hughes opened the ninth with a double down the third-base line off Mark Lowe (1-1). Arthur Rhodes came in with two on and one out and got Ben Revere to fly out before Casilla laced a single to left that knocked in Hughes from second without a play at the plate.

Delmon Young went 3-for-4 with a solo homer and Michael Cuddyer added a three- run shot for the Twins, who have won seven of eight overall.

"We've got some life, some energy. Everyone's getting on base and swinging the bats well," Cuddyer said. "We're playing good baseball."

Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton each had two hits and a solo home run in the Rangers' third loss in four games.

Getting the ball for the Twins tonight will be lefty Brian Duensing, who is coming off a terrific outing his last time out. Duensing scattered six hits over eight scoreless innings on Sunday to beat the Kansas City Royals and improve to 3-5 on the year, while lowering his ERA to 4.72.

Duensing is 1-2 in five games (two starts) against the Twins with a 3.31 ERA.

Texas will counter with a lefty of its own in C.J. Wilson, who is also coming in after a brilliant outing his last time out. Wilson held the Cleveland Indians off the board for 7 2/3 innings and surrendered three hits on Sunday to improve to 6-3 to go along with a 3.30 ERA.

Wilson has faced the Twins 20 times, but this will be just his fourth start against them. He is 1-3 with a 4.24 ERA in his previous outings against them.