Major League Baseball News

Slowey returns to Twins rotation to face Rangers

Sep 17, 2007, 15:11 GMT

- Rookie right-hander Kevin Slowey returns to the rotation and takes the ball for the Minnesota Twins at the outset of a three-game series with the Texas Rangers tonight at the Metrodome.

A 23-year-old Texas native, Slowey has made eight starts in 10 appearances this season. He gets the call tonight in place of teammate Boof Bonser, who was sent to the bullpen.

Slowey earned his last win as a starter on June 30 in Detroit, allowing nine hits and four runs over six innings of an 8-5 Minnesota victory. More recently, he pitched 3 1/3 innings of relief, getting a no-decision in the Twins' 6-3 loss to Kansas City on Sept. 12.

Slowey has never faced the Rangers.

Texas right-hander Edison Volquez faces the Twins for the first time.

He suffered his first loss of the season in his last start, getting touched for seven hits and five runs in six innings while dropping a 5-1 verdict at Detroit.

Previously, he'd combined to allow nine hits and three runs over 11 innings while beating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Oakland.

Volquez, who's made brief appearances with the Rangers for three straight seasons, is 3-11 in 17 career appearances - 14 starts - with a 7.86 earned run average in 63 innings.

On Sunday in Oakland, Michael Young's grand slam in the eighth was the big blow in a wild 11-9 win for the Rangers over the Athletics that started with a brawl in the first inning and the ejections of Texas' Vicente Padilla, and Oakland's Nick Swisher.

Young finished 3-for-4 with a career-high seven RBI for the Rangers, who salvaged a win from the four-game set, and stopped a five-game skid. Padilla lasted only two batters before being tossed, and John Rheinecker (3-2) earned the win for 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief. Joaquin Benoit got the last four outs for his fifth save of the season.

In Minnesota, Jair Jurrjens carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and Todd Jones escaped a bases-loaded ninth-inning jam to record his 300th career save, as the Tigers kept pace in the AL wild card race with a 6-4 win over the Twins that capped a sweep in their three-game series at the Metrodome.

Nick Punto ended 2-for-4 with an RBI and scored a run for the Twins, who lost their fourth straight. Luis Rodriguez finished 2-for-4 and scored a run. Scott Baker gave up four runs - three earned - on eight hits with three strikeouts over seven innings for Minnesota.

Minnesota has won four of six from the Rangers this season after going 7-11 in the series the previous two seasons.

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