Twins 6, Rangers 2: The Buck Truck Just Ran Over the Rangers

[Sherry Cerny]

Image courtesy of © Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: David Festa 6 IP, 3H, 2ER, 2BB, 4K (86 pitches, 51 strikes (59%))
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (11)
Top 3 WPA: Byron Buxton (.341); Willi Castro (.253); Brooks Lee (.090)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

David Festa took his second turn since being recalled to replace the injured Pablo López Wedneaday, facing the Rangers for the second time in his short MLB career. The first game was Aug. 17, 2024 in Texas, when he pitched five innings, allowing six hits, two runs, and zero walks. He also recorded six strikeouts. It was the last real peak in the Twins' up-and-down season; their freefall began the next day.

Festa had a solid first inning, and a much better start than his appearance against the Athletics last week. He pitched five innings, only gave up two runs and struck out four. The first run came from Marcus Semien, who took him deep on a 1-1 a changeup leading off the second and got the Rangers on the board first, 1-0.

Jonah Heim got ahead of Festa in the count and got his fourth double of the season the next inning, and another double from Josh Smith, scored Heim to push the score up 2-0. It could have gotten ugly, right then and there—but it didn't. What might have been a two-out, two-run double by Semien to break another game open in the top of the third instead became Byron Buxton's latest chance to prove his greatness.

The Twins bats were a little slow to catch up tonight, but once Buxton got the party started with that catch, he knew how to keep it going. Bottom of the third, a double from Brooks Lee, and a walk from Christian Vázquez set the table. Buxton feasted, with a 479-foot home run to left-center to flip the scoreboard and utterly electrify the crowd.

Especially after last night, being ahead on the scoreboard and being able to answer back gave the team the steam needed to move forward. And move forward they did. In the fifth, a Buxton double chased Rangers starter Jack Leiter. He'd be retired on a fielder's choice, but later in the frame, with two outs, Willi Castro lashed a line-drive triple, scoring both Ty France and Matt Wallner for a 5-2, lead. For good measure, Carlos Correa hit his 13th double of the season, scoring Castro and giving the team one more insurance run and Festa a little more room to come in for his final inning up 6-2.

Festa finished the sixth inning starting with a strikeout, followed by two defensive outs. Festa pitched an absolute gem of a game after a shaky second inning, and got the well-deserved run support he needed. 

Festa was relieved by Brock Stewart for the seventh and Stweart only threw 13 pitches to get out of a very clean inning. Louis Varland replaced Stewart for the eighth and battled a little bit to get out of the inning. He allowed two singles, before finally striking out Wyatt Langford for the first out. With two on base and only one out a mound visit to discuss exit strategy took place, and like it was planned two defensive outs ended the inning, with no damage. 

The Twins ended the night with closer Johan Duran, who didn't earn a save thanks to the cushion he had to work with but shut things down nicely.

What’s Next? 
The Twins finish out the series with a rubber match, together with a getaway game before a series in Houston. Bailey Ober (4-2; 3.78ERA) will be taking the mound against Patrick Corbin (3-5; 3.52ERA) at 12:10PM CST. 

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[David HK]

Great wrap-up!  And great work by Festa and the bats.  Caught up on the mlbtv after monitoring exams this morning--  2 notes:

1)  I almost always have the oppo broadcast team on, as I'm completely underwhelmed by the Twins crew.  But Texas has to be the worst in the league.  No more of that.

2)  I'm old enough to remember Halsey Hall recapping rundowns:  Herb Carneal:  "That play goes 1-3-4-1-6-2."  Halsey:  "And if a man answers, hang up!" 😂

[Bracky]

All around fun game to watch today!

Overall nice outing by Festa and it’s a fun day when Buxton is playing well.

[darwin22]

Great outing by Festa to limit early damage and make it though 6.

Buxton absolutely obliterated that slider for a mammoth HR.  Guessing it has to rank (479 feet) as 1 of the top 5 Twins HRs in Target Field history.

Also kuddos to Castro!  Huge 2 RBI triple to open things up.

Need Ober to bounce back from his last mediocre start tomorrow in finale.

 

 

[knothole61]

Great win...and Buxton was in All-Star form!

Help me out here: I'm calling on the more prosaic, stat-centered folks herein to try to make some sense of this for me. I believe that we're being plagued during the telecasts of late with stats that seem (to one such as me) to be absolutely meaningless. I'm wondering if I'm missing something, or if maybe the producers are just giving AI free rein to pop meaningless stats on the screen without considering their merit. This evening, we were told, was the first time since 2016 that Buxton has had a walk, a home run, and a double in a game. Even more meaningless, I think, a couple of games ago we were informed that we had just seen the first instance since 1975 that a Twins' catcher and third baseman had hit back-to-back homers in a game.

What am I missing?

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

[Mark G]

16 minutes ago, knothole61 said:

Great win...and Buxton was in All-Star form!

Help me out here: I'm calling on the more prosaic, stat-centered folks herein to try to make some sense of this for me. I believe that we're being plagued during the telecasts of late with stats that seem (to one such as me) to be absolutely meaningless. I'm wondering if I'm missing something, or if maybe the producers are just giving AI free rein to pop meaningless stats on the screen without considering their merit. This evening, we were told, was the first time since 2016 that Buxton has had a walk, a home run, and a double in a game. Even more meaningless, I think, a couple of games ago we were informed that we had just seen the first instance since 1975 that a Twins' catcher and third baseman had hit back-to-back homers in a game.

What am I missing?

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

I couldn't agree more.  Because I couldn't care less about the meaningless stats.  

I guess they have to fill the air with something.  🙄

[UK Twin]

I don't think any other player in baseball could make a catch like that in the top of the 3rd and then go and demolish a slider on the OUTSIDE part of the plate 479 feet over the bullpens into the left-center field seats in the bottom of the 3rd! There's not even that many players who can hit a HR that far (not including Coors Field) but to do both of those things in the same inning is frankly mind blowing.  

Thankfully Festa had a solid game and went 6 innings - badly needed. Now Ober needs to go 6 or 7 as well to give the bullpen some respite. 

[Bodie]

6 hours ago, Mark G said:

I couldn't agree more.  Because I couldn't care less about the meaningless stats.  

I guess they have to fill the air with something.  🙄

Figure close to 3 hours for the game, and another half hour pre/post game.  

Unless you want to hear Trevor Ploufe's story about the fattest slump buster he ever saw (I know I  want it, but...), you've got to fill that time with something!

[Whitey333]

Great win Twins.  We need to beat the rain and the Rangers on Thursday.  I too get tired of all the mindless information being thrown at us.  I like Audra on TwinsTv except she never shuts up.  She always talks over the play by play often leaving the viewer missing live action.  Plus all the games I watch there seems to be a lot of talk and video going on that is totally unrelated to the game at hand. .

[JD-TWINS]

Coulombe - Jax - Sands all fresh for this afternoon………goods news. Varland did a nice job working out of trouble last night - good to see.

Front Office: To me, they’re given little to no credit for doing their job…..at a nice level.

Pulled the trigger on moving away from the weak link within a very good Bullpen….good luck to Jorge!

Bader - France - Coulombe - Stewart - Castro all FA guys they’ve acquired. Not a bad list as of June 12, 2025.

Topa is doing what was expected/anticipated when he was central figure in trade with Seattle.

Carlos Santana has a .350 OBP & is repeating his very good 2024, for $12M …….Luis Arraez is having a somewhat “off season” for him from a BA standpoint at around .280, for $14M ……..Ty France has similar BA to Arraez, he has better pop & little better OBP - maybe better defense at 1B as well, for $1M. Seems that the FO’s signing here doesn’t get much credit.

I do think France & Bader will regress somewhat as the season wears on but they sure have (affordably) helped get Team to where they are today - in the playoff hunt. Nice moves by FO.

 

[tony&rodney]

Watched the game and felt that Festa worked well with Vazquez.

Didn't look at comments last night but wondered how many wanted Festa sent back to AAA after he gave up 2 runs.

Great game by Buxton which highlights in bold what a healthy Byron does for his team.

The Twins continue to receive solid pitching. 

The prayers of many posters (not me) were answered late last night with Jorge Alcala being traded to Boston for a Level A+ unranked prospect. All the best to Alcala. His 8.88 ERA is super lucky in China.

[JD-TWINS]

Who gets the call to replace Alcala on the roster? Do they reach into the Randy Dobnack bag again? I have no idea how he’s been in St Paul? ………good experience to get from here to All-star break, maybe?……,…...I’m curious.

[AceWrigley]

7 hours ago, knothole61 said:

Great win...and Buxton was in All-Star form!

Help me out here: I'm calling on the more prosaic, stat-centered folks herein to try to make some sense of this for me. I believe that we're being plagued during the telecasts of late with stats that seem (to one such as me) to be absolutely meaningless. I'm wondering if I'm missing something, or if maybe the producers are just giving AI free rein to pop meaningless stats on the screen without considering their merit. This evening, we were told, was the first time since 2016 that Buxton has had a walk, a home run, and a double in a game. Even more meaningless, I think, a couple of games ago we were informed that we had just seen the first instance since 1975 that a Twins' catcher and third baseman had hit back-to-back homers in a game.

What am I missing?

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

What are you missing? Nothing.

This is the first time in Twin's history that i've replied to one of your posts.

[Jeff K]

11 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Watched the game and felt that Festa worked well with Vazquez.

Didn't look at comments last night but wondered how many wanted Festa sent back to AAA after he gave up 2 runs.

Great game by Buxton which highlights in bold what a healthy Byron does for his team.

The Twins continue to receive solid pitching. 

The prayers of many posters (not me) were answered late last night with Jorge Alcala being traded to Boston for a Level A+ unranked prospect. All the best to Alcala. His 8.88 ERA is super lucky in China.

I can't say that I prayed for Alcala's departure, but I'm not going to miss him.  At all.  Despite all the injuries, Buxton's talent is electrifying.

[jmlease1]

A very nice win by the Twins and a good bounce back after an ugly loss. I wasn't thrilled seeing festa hang a change like that in the second, but it was the 3rd that made me wonder if he was going to fall apart. The defense picked him up (something we might not have said very often in recent years!) and he did a good job settling in. I was happy to see him get a chance to go 6 and not get yanked early, but I suspect the 4 run lead instead of a 1 run lead had a lot more to do with it.

Buxton was great last night. Goodness, he crushed that homer! Oh, my. He obliterated that one! But he really had a complete game last night; he looks healthy and locked in. Love it. He's one of the most exciting players I've ever seen when he's healthy and it's so much fun watching him play.

I'm guessing Bruce Bochy was losing his mind internally when Leiter walked Vazquez. Nice to see that happen to someone else for a change, lol.

Brooks Lee looking much more comfortable at the plate the last couple of weeks, and is having a very nice stretch. Hopefully he's figured some things out and will be a regular contributor, especially with Clemens looking pretty rough over the same period.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Who gets the call to replace Alcala on the roster? Do they reach into the Randy Dobnack bag again? I have no idea how he’s been in St Paul? ………good experience to get from here to All-star break, maybe?……,…...I’m curious.

Wentz for Alcalá and the moves are already done. The Twins saw Wentz plenty when he pitched for the Tigers. They must think there's something to unlock there. 

[knothole61]

12 hours ago, AceWrigley said:

What are you missing? Nothing.

This is the first time in Twin's history that i've replied to one of your posts.

Ace...nice!

[David HK]

12 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Wentz for Alcalá and the moves are already done. The Twins saw Wentz plenty when he pitched for the Tigers. They must think there's something to unlock there. 

Judging from today's outing, they might need a safecracker! 😂