ARLINGTON, Texas – Josh Hamilton hit his 29th home run, Michael Young made up for two errors with the tiebreaking RBI single and the Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 on Tuesday night in a matchup of division leaders.
Young's two-out single in the seventh inning off Carl Pavano (15-9) snapped a 3-all tie and put the AL West leaders ahead to stay and ruined the right-hander's sixth complete game of the season.
Darren Oliver (1-1) pitched 1 1-3 scoreless innings after relieving hardluck starter Colby Lewis. Hard-throwing rookie Neftali Feliz worked the ninth for his 32nd save in 35 chances.
Andres Blanco had two doubles for Texas, driving in a run with the first and scoring the go-ahead run after the second.
Blanco went the opposite way for a one-out double in the seventh, a ball that landed on the left-field line, and scored on Young's single. Pavano got Hamilton on an inning-ending infield popup, stranding two runners.
Pavano struck out five and walked two in his second complete-game loss this season.
Lewis allowed three runs over 6 1-3 innings, missing on his seventh attempt at getting his 10th victory. Lewis left with the score tied, and is 0-5 with a 3.35 ERA in his last seven starts — a span when the Rangers have scored a total of seven runs while he was still in the game.
The Twins tied the game at 3-all against Lewis after Delmon Young ended an 0-for-12 slump with an infield single to start the seventh. Danny Valencia singled and Alexi Casilla doubled off the right-field wall before Oliver took over.
Rookie first baseman Mitch Moreland threw home to get Valencia after fielding Denard Span's grounder, and the Rangers went ahead in the bottom of that inning.
Hamilton hit the first pitch of the fourth over the left-center field wall for a 2-all tie. Texas went ahead later in the inning when Blanco's RBI ground-rule double followed two defensive lapses.
Bengie Molina reached on a two-out double that dropped between right fielder Jason Kubel and center fielder Span and rolled to the wall. Moreland then got an infield single on a grounder that second baseman Orlando Hudson backhanded before short-hopping the throw to first.
Neither of Young's errors led to a run, but the Rangers needed a double play to get out of the sixth after his throwing miscue.
The Twins got off to a quick start the night after being held to one hit.
After Span lined out to Lewis to start the game, Hudson and Joe Mauer — whose one-out single in the ninth Monday was the only Minnesota hit — followed with consecutive singles. Both scored on Michael Cuddyer's double when center fielder Julio Borbon let the ball get past him after trying to make a diving catch of the sinking liner.
Borbon did make a diving catch on Span's liner to end the fifth, and in the ninth made a leaping catch on the track to rob Valencia of an extra-base hit.
Texas got its first run in the third when Elvis Andrus' smart move on the basepaths delayed an inning-ending double play long enough for Borbon to score.
Borbon reached on an infield single and went to third on Andrus' single before Young hit a grounder to second. Andrus stopped in the middle of the basepath and initially avoided being tagged by Hudson, who threw to first instead and wiped out the force. Borbon crossed the plate before the Twins tagged Andrus for the third out.
Notes: Andrus' 14-game hitting streak is the longest active streak in the majors. ... Rangers reliever Frank Francisco was unavailable after getting a cortisone injection under his right arm.
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