Dunning's rare lack of control extends Rangers' skid

MINNEAPOLIS -- Friday’s game in Minnesota unraveled quickly in the most unlikely of scenarios for the Rangers.

Texas sent starter Dane Dunning to the mound to break the team’s seven-game losing streak. Dunning then walked four of the first five batters he faced before giving up a three-run triple.

The Rangers could never recover in a 12-2 loss to the Twins.

“Just didn’t have command of, really, any of my pitches,” Dunning said. “I just want to go out and say that this loss is completely on me. … It was just nothing competitive in the zone. Really, just didn’t have a feel for any pitches and put our guys in a situation like that, kind of going through this streak right now, is not where you want to be.”

Dunning (9-6) walked a career-high six batters in four innings. He surrendered four runs on five hits and struck out six. But no Texas pitcher was untouched on Friday, with Martín Pérez, Grant Anderson and Austin Hedges -- who started the game at catcher before pitching the eighth -- all gave up runs.

Dunning took the blame for the loss – Texas’ season-high eighth in a row – but his teammates weren’t absolving themselves.

“When it rains, it pours,” said Mitch Garver, who homered against his former team in the second inning. “We haven’t been good on any part of the ball. We haven’t pitched well. We haven’t played defense well. We haven’t hit well, especially with runners in scoring position. It’s just been a tough stretch. Eventually, we’ll come out of it, but the clock’s ticking a little bit.”

During the losing streak, the Rangers have seen their lead in the American League West shrink away. They started the day with a one-game advantage over Houston, which lost to Detroit, and Seattle, which defeated Kansas City to pull into a tie with Texas for the division lead.

As unexpected as Dunning’s start was, Texas’ August has been just as shocking. The Rangers started the month with an eight-game winning streak. Then, they won four of six before dropping eight straight and now head into Saturday with Max Scherzer on the hill.

“You can’t think about what’s happened the last week and a half, whatever,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’re still in a great situation. That’s how we’ve got to feel. We have baseball left. This is a tough rut to be in. There’s no getting around it. But like I said, it’s time to bow our necks, find a way to win a ballgame and get this thing turned around.”

Dunning had walked five batters in four August starts before walking six on Friday. He hadn’t allowed more than three runs in a game since July 22 against the Dodgers.

"Very uncharacteristic of me and it was just, plain honest, pretty pathetic,” Dunning said.

One of Dunning’s misses ended up hitting Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers in the third inning. Jeffers hit a two-run homer to put the Twins ahead in the eighth during Thursday’s game, but Dunning said there was no intent on his part.

“I walked six batters today,” Dunning said. “Like, I had no idea where the ball was going. There was no intention to hit him. I think it’s a little idiotic that he reacted the way he did and then coming back and retaliating.”

After Jeffers was hit, Minnesota starter Sonny Gray came back and hit Garver with a pitch the next inning, leading to the benches briefly clearing.

“It all started with their guy getting hit, the way he reacted,” Garver said. “Like, first and third, we’re not trying to hit somebody intentionally to load the bases for Joey Gallo. We don’t care what happened last night. This wasn’t about you. The way he reacted kind of set the stage for it. Come on. Anybody who’s watched a baseball game or two knows what’s going on here.”

Texas maintained that the hit-by-pitch was just one of Dunning’s misses.

“What I saw was a guy missing more than I’ve ever seen him miss the first inning,” Bochy said. “They weren’t even close. That’s uncharacteristic of Dane Dunning. So, he was off. Normally, when he’s missing, he’s right on the edges. But they were pretty bad misses tonight.”