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Adolis Garcia, Willie Calhoun hit homers, but two other Texas Rangers keyed late win

Hyeon-Jong Yang remains scheduled for the first start of his MLB career Wednesday in place of Kohei Arihara. But the Texas Rangers received good news Tuesday on Arihara.

The right-hander from Japan played catch without any pain in the callous on his right middle finger and could make his next start Saturday. Arihara will throw a bullpen Wednesday as the final test before a decision is made on his availability.

Arihara had struggled in his past two starts, allowing 11 runs in 4 1/3 innings. Yang, a left-hander, relieved him Friday and tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings on one hit and became an option to make a spot start.

The Rangers took some pressure of Yang with a late comeback Tuesday night to even the series against the Minnesota Twins.

Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 6-3 victory in 10 innings.

Calhoun, Garcia fuel comeback

The Rangers hadn’t done much of anything offensively the first eight innings, some of that due to bad luck. Deep flyballs by Joey Gallo and Nate Lowe that would have been homers Monday night were swatted down by wind blowing into Target Field.

That luck changed in the ninth inning.

Willie Calhoun opened the Rangers’ last hurrah with a home run to turn a 3-1 game into a nail-biter, and they forged a 3-3 tie four batters later on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa sacrifice fly to shallow left field.

That ball would have been an easy out under ordinary circumstances, but the Twins’ infield was playing in for a ground ball and shortstop Andrelton Simmons had to race back to make the catch going away from the infield.

That allowed Charlie Culberson just enough time to tag at third and score.

Left-hander Joely Rodriguez pitched a clean ninth inning to force extra innings. A runner starts at second base these days in extras, so Adolis Garcia’s one-out homer was a two-run shot rather than a solo blast.

Garcia has a penchant for delivering in the clutch, and also for doing it one the road. It was his seventh homer of the season, all of them coming away from Globe Life Field.

That’s baseball.

“Baseball’s a funny game,” Garcia said. “Whenever they come they come.”

No. 7 came at the right time Tuesday.

Holt hurt, Ibanez up

The Rangers delivered some surprising injury news before the game, as infielder Brock Holt was placed on the 10-day IL with a strained right hamstring and infielder Andy Ibanez was added from the taxi squad.

He made an impact in his first career at-bat.

Ibanez singled as a pinch-hitter in the ninth, pushing Culberson to second base. Ibanez was lifted for the speedy Eli White, and both runners advanced on a Jose Trevino bunt to set the table for Kiner-Falefa’s sacrifice fly.

“For him to get his first hit in the ninth inning, it’s a pretty cool moment,” manager Chris Woodward said. “It’s something he’s been waiting for his whole life, and it’s cool to see.”

Ibanez made his MLB debut after spending four seasons in the minor leagues and last season at the alternate training site. He can play second base and third base, but he made multiple errors in spring training.

Woodward, though, has always been high on Ibanez, going so far as to say that once Ibanez reaches the majors, he might never return to the minors. The Cuban is offense-minded and can cover a variety of pitches, but isn’t nearly as powerful as countryman Garcia.

Ibanez bats right-handed and so does Culberson, who started the past two games. He has been starting against left-handers while Holt faced righties, but started Monday against Twins right Kenta Maeda.

Culberson is the better defensive player, which could put him in the lineup more often than Ibanez.

“I want to get Andy in the lineup a couple times,” Woodward said.

Holt delivered the winning hit Sunday as the Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox, and was injured as he accelerated to second base. He was sidelined earlier this season with the same injury.

Gibson delivers

Kyle Gibson hadn’t allowed a home run all season, but that ended early. Byron Buxton his two-run homer in the first, and Willians Astudillo added a solo shot in the fifth.

Gibson ended up pitching well what was an emotional game for him, pitching against his old team and in his old ballpark for the first time.

Considering the circumstances, he nailed it.

The Twins managed only one other hit against Gibson, who tossed eight innings and struck out eight. He said he was amped up early but also had try to pitch differently than he had all season.

“He probably felt a little pressure coming back here to pitch against his old teammates,” Woodward said. “To pitch like that was phenomenal.”

Twins hitters know him well from his time with them and know how he likes to pitch. So, he stayed away from his sinker against left-handed hitters and had to make an adjustment when he sensed that they were trying to eliminate his slider.

“I had to be cognizant of that and understand that these guys, because they’ve seen me throw so much, they’re going to think along with me,” Gibson said.

In giving the Rangers eight innings, it set them up perfectly for the ninth and 10th. The Rangers went with Rodriguez and closer Ian Kennedy while the Twins had already used up their winning pieces in the seventh, eighth and ninth.

The Rangers had no trouble with lefty Brandon Waddell in the 10th.