The Minnesota Twins scored nine runs in 10 innings while the Texas Rangers only managed seven runs.

Well, the bullpen is not really to blame. Before Manfred Man scored in the extra inning, they pitched 5 13 shutout innings. Aroldis Chapman then collapsed when expected with pitching an uncommon second inning.

The bats are also not truly to blame. With Texas hitting so poorly lately, six runs (I’m not counting the zombie run) from the bats would have won a great many of the losses in this current run of misery. However, they didn’t really pile on once they took an early lead and they didn’t take advantage of some of their opportunities later.

Jordan Montgomery, the starting pitcher today, who had really been one of the recent shining spots, is to blame instead. However, it seems like Texas has adopted this strategy in recent times. The rotation struggles even if the bullpen doesn’t collapse by some miracle. The bats go for the silence if the starter throws well. If everything goes according to plan over the last few innings, the relievers throw the cot.

The Twins had six consecutive two-out hits against Montgomery in the fourth inning, turning a 4-1 game into a 6-4 deficit and forcing Montgomery to take a shower before the deadline after the Rangers took a 4-0 lead, including two rare first inning runs.