Twins 10, Rangers 2: deGrom's Last Start, Minnesota's Six in the Second

Texas scored twice. Then deGrom did not get out of the second whole.

September 25, 2026 - Minneapolis - Brandon Nimmo doubled. Josh Jung was hit. Corey Seager singled Nimmo home. Wyatt Langford grounded Jung in. 2-0 Rangers in the first, ace on the mound, two games left in a West race. Then the Minnesota Twins sent nine men to the plate in the second and scored six. They beat the Texas Rangers 10-2 at Target Field. Jacob deGrom lasted four innings in his last regular-season start: eight hits, eight earned, three walks, five strikeouts, 89 pitches.

Cloudy. 68 degrees. Wind 9 mph in from right. First pitch 7:10 p.m. Attendance 25,768. The game lasted 2 hours, 37 minutes. Minnesota had 11 hits. Texas had six. Nobody made an error. The error was the second inning.

Skip Schumaker had said Thursday that Texas needed its "dudes to be dudes" if October was still the plan. Friday, per the MLB recap, deGrom looked like a mere mortal. The Rangers are 79-81. The Houston Astros lost 6-5 in West Sacramento on the same night and sit 79-81 with the season-series tiebreaker. Another Minnesota win on Saturday, with a Houston win, ends Texas. If not, it is Game 162.

"Listen, I would always bet on Jacob," Schumaker said, per MLB.com. "I'd want him in Game 1 of a series. I would have taken my chances again if he was available tomorrow, I believe in Jacob deGrom. It was a rough start, unfortunately tonight."

Six in the second, then Clemens for the rest

Josh Bell walked. Ryan Jeffers singled. Walker Jenkins reached. Royce Lewis lined a single to center. Bell scored. Jeffers scored. 2-2. Ryan Kreidler bunted toward the mound and beat it. Jenkins scored. 3-2. Luke Keaschall tripled to right, his third of the year. Lewis scored. Kreidler scored. 5-2, then 6-2 before the inning closed. deGrom had a 2-0 lead and a six-run inning in the same start.

Keaschall doubled Kreidler home in the fourth, his 27th double. Kody Clemens singled Keaschall home. 8-2. Clemens homered to left-center in the sixth, his 27th, Keaschall scoring again. 10-2. That was every Minnesota run. Keaschall went 4-for-5 with a double, a triple, three runs, three RBI, and a stolen base. Clemens went 3-for-4 with a homer, three RBI, and a stolen base. The 2-3 punch did not need a third punch.

Joe Ryan (the win, 7-10) threw six: four hits, two earned, one walk, eight strikeouts, 103 pitches, 68 strikes. The two runs were the first-inning ones. After that he faced a Texas lineup that had already spent its night in the second. Tommy Nance threw a scoreless seventh. Taylor Rogers threw a scoreless eighth. Kody Funderburk struck out two in a scoreless ninth. Nobody needed a save. The Twins did not give the lead back.

Trevor Williams threw two scoreless innings after deGrom, three strikeouts. Gavin Collyer allowed Clemens' homer through two. The Rangers' bullpen was not the problem. The second inning was the problem. deGrom tied a season high with eight runs allowed. He set a season high with eight hits. Schumaker said he knew deGrom wanted seven innings and a shutout. He got four and eight.

A West race on life support

Nimmo went 1-for-4 with a double, a run, and three strikeouts. Seager drove in one. Langford drove in one. Jung scored without a official at-bat. Jake Burger, Ezequiel Duran, and Danny Jansen each had a hit. That was the Texas offense after the first: singles that did not score. The club can be eliminated as soon as Saturday.

Minnesota is 76-84. Friday was not a playoff game for the Twins. It was a playoff game for the Rangers, and it ended in the second. Keaschall's triple found Nimmo in right. Kreidler's bunt found deGrom. Lewis's single found center. The MLB recap called it one of those innings. It was also three consecutive pieces of contact with runners on, and an ace who could not get the ground ball he needed.

"Two games left," Schumaker said. "We'll obviously be scoreboard watching tonight. It's part of the game and part of where we're at in the season. The important thing is to come back tomorrow and do whatever we can to fight and to try to win that game tomorrow."

Texas has to win tomorrow. Minnesota already won tonight. Keaschall had four hits. Clemens had the homer. Ryan had the six innings. deGrom had the last regular-season start, and it did not look like October.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Minnesota at 21 team fantasy points, tied with Arizona for first on the slate. Ryan had 21 pitching FP. Keaschall had 15 hitting FP. Clemens had 12.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; AthX Engine daily scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*