Pelfrey battered by Rangers as Twins drop their fifth in a row

ARLINGTON, Texas – Mike Pelfrey couldn't keep his grip on the throw from shortstop Eduardo Nunez. Then he couldn't keep his grip on the game.

Pelfrey, the Twins' best starting pitcher for much of this season, allowed eight runs, the most he's ever given up as a Twin, in just 3⅔ innings Saturday, and the team lost its fifth straight game, 11-7 to the ­Rangers.

"I just didn't feel very good. I went from the best stuff I've had all year [in] my last start, to today, where nothing's working," said Pelfrey, who walked three and didn't strike out a batter. "The ball was flat, up in the zone. My split[-finger] was terrible."

Even so, things might have been different had Pelfrey held on to Nunez's throw. Double plays in each of the first three innings helped the righthander escape with only three runs despite giving up seven hits, and the Rangers led only 4-3 when Pelfrey appeared to induce a fourth DP, getting Prince Fielder to hit a hard grounder to first baseman Kennys Vargas with the bases loaded.

Vargas threw to Nunez for the second out, and Pelfrey hustled to first base to take the return throw. The throw was low, however, and the 6-foot-7 Pelfrey stumbled as he reached down and slightly behind him for the ball. He got his glove on the ball, but it dropped out and Fielder was safe, with Hanser Alberto scoring on the play, making it 5-3.

"I was running over there, and I think Nunie threw a 90-mph sinker," Pelfrey joked of Nunez's relay. "I'm not the most athletic guy, I wasn't able to get that. It had pretty good movement."

Instead of being in the dugout with a one-run deficit, ­Pelfrey was forced to face another batter. And that's when he made a far greater mistake: After falling behind Mitch Moreland 2-0, Pelfrey tried a split-finger that curled over the middle of the plate, and Moreland crushed it 15 rows into the right-field stands. The three-run shot, Moreland's eighth of the season, turned a competitive game into an 8-3 rout.

The next batter, rookie Joey Gallo, made the deficit even bigger, smashing a fastball from J.R. Graham into the upper deck in right-center field, a blow measured at 461 feet. That's the fourth-longest homer in Globe Life Park's 22 seasons, the Rangers said.

The loss was the Twins' ninth in 12 June games, and the five-game losing streak is their longest since the last time they were in Texas nearly a year ago, a five-game streak from June 24-28, 2014.

The Twins trailed 11-3 in the seventh inning, when the game was interrupted by a one hour, 19 minute rain delay. When play resumed, the Twins scored four meaningless runs in the ninth — though manager Paul Molitor hopes they mean something on Sunday.

"Time will tell. Hopefully the guys who were involved in that, it makes them feel a little better to play some offensive baseball," he said. "Maybe it'll carry over."

He hopes Pelfrey's outing doesn't. The eight runs were the most Pelfrey had allowed since Sept. 12, 2009, when he gave up eight to the Phillies in the Mets' 10-9 victory. Saturday's eight runs added nearly a full run to his 2015 ERA, ballooning it from 2.28 — fourth-best in the American League — to 3.18.