Continued: Morneau's grand slam can't snap Twins' losing streak

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TEXAS 6, TWINS 5 (10)

Up next: at Texas • 7:05 tonight

TV: FSN (1500-AM)

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ARLINGTON, TEXAS - The Twins arrived here on Friday to continue what other American League teams have done against the woebegone Texas Rangers this season -- pad stats and build momentum.

Instead, the Twins blew a big lead and eventually lost 6-5 in 10 innings thanks to a stream of undisciplined baseball that had Twins manager Ron Gardenhire flustered afterwards.

"We tried, but [we] deserved to lose that baseball game," said Gardenhire, who declined to answer any questions following his opening monologue. "That's about it."

Texas brought a seven-game losing streak into the game. The Rangers were ranked last in the American League in team ERA, last in fielding percentage and 12th in runs scored.

But the Rangers hung around long enough for the Twins to give the game away. David Murphy's two-out single to deep left -- off a pitch by Juan Rincon that was up and on the outer half of the plate -- drove in the winning run.

"We tried to keep up the pressure," Twins DH Jason Kubel said. "They did a great job of bearing down."

Texas looked like a pushover early as the Twins took a 5-0 lead in the third. Justin Morneau drove in all the runs with an RBI single in the first and his third career grand slam in the third, both off Texas starter Kevin Millwood.

However, Twins righthander Nick Blackburn got in a bad groove in the bottom of the third, and he couldn't get out of it.

The Rangers opened the third with seven consecutive hits off of Blackburn, who was punished for throwing fastballs early in the count.

The rookie needed an odd double play to get out of the inning with the score tied 5-5. On Texas' seventh hit in a row, Hank Blalock was thrown out at home trying to score from second on Jason Botts' double, and Botts was thrown out trying to advance to third.

"It happened fast, and I knew what was going on; I was leaving pitches up around their knees," said Blackburn, who survived to pitch six innings. "You have to slow the ball down and slow yourself down and start getting the ball below the knees.

"I couldn't do it. They were attacking the first or second pitch of every at-bat. I shouldn't have let that happen."

Gardenhire didn't name names, but he appeared to not be pleased with left fielder Delmon Young, who threw to the wrong base and overran a single for an error in that bottom half of the third inning.

"You've got to keep the double play in order and throw to the right base," Gardenhire said.

Worse yet, after looking like they were going to have their way with Texas pitching early, the Twins stopped scoring.

The Twins had their leadoff hitter reach base in the fifth, sixth, seventh and 10th innings -- and failed to score in each situation. They threw away several at-bats by swinging at pitches up in the strike zone and popping them up.

That's how you help a team end a seven-game losing streak -- while extending your own to three.

"Kind of a frustrating game when you score five early and ... we don't do anything else after that," Gardenhire said. "Guys were competing, but we sure chased a lot of pitches."

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