The Twins' offense tried it's hardest to lose Friday night's series opener against the Texas Rangers, but ultimately the Rangers proved to be the worse of two bad teams.

Carlos Silva put together another beautiful outing, allowing just 5 hits and a run through 7 innings. Yet again though, he was robbed of a victory by his offense. The win, however, did come for Matt Guerrier in extra innings. This game shouldn't have needed 10 innings though.

In the sixth inning Torii Hunter reached first on a bunt single. With one out he managed to squander the opportunity (with Justin Morneau at the plate) by pulling his "leave before the pitcher's thrown the ball" stunt. He was thrown out at second. Morneau hasn't exactly been on fire lately, but it's probably best not to pull that trick (a trick that has been working less and less frequently) with the most powerful hitter on the team at the plate.

In the very next inning the Twins were handed an opportunity to score by Texas pitcher Kason Gabbard. With 2 outs he hit Mike Redmond with a pitch. Gabbard went on to walk the next two batters, Tommy Watkins and Alexi Casilla, due to what appeared to be some type of strain in his forearm. He looked quite uncomfortable in his throwing motion, but was left in until after the Casilla at bat. The scoring opportunity seemed to be dead as Nick Punto came to the plate against reliever Jamey Wright. However, Wright started off Punto with 3 balls. Somehow Punto managed to turn that into an inning-ending strikeout.

In the 10th inning Punto redeemed himself by singling to center and advancing to third on a Marlon Byrd error, all with no outs. Had the outfield been playing at normal depth, it should have been a routine out, but they were playing deep, as is common in the situation, to cut down the extra base hits. I'm not sure that's the best move with Punto at the plate, but it certainly paid off. With Joe Mauer at the plate, a wild pitch allowed Punto to come across and end the game.

Game Notes

• Matt Guerrier picked up his second win of the season and only the third of his career.
• Tommy Watkins was 2 for 3 at the plate and is batting .364 in his first 11 big-league at-bats.
• Torii Hunter was 2-4 with 2 singles
• Michael Cuddyer had the only extra base hit for the Twins, his 21st double of the season.

Playoff Hunt

Cleveland also won a close game, 2-1, against Tampa Bay. With Detroit losing to the Yankees, the Indians moved atop the division by 1/2 game. The Twins trail Cleveland by 6 games. For the wild card, the Twins trail Seattle by 7 games with the Yankees, Tigers and Blue Jays wedged between them.