"When the Twins visited here last year, things were so bad with the Rangers that they didn't have the money to sign their first-round draft pick.

Since then, Texas has had its spending watched by the league. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, had potential owners look into buying the club and, at league meetings in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago, Chuck Greenberg and icon Nolan Ryan were approved as new owners.

Things on the field, however, have been more than stable. The Twins have seen that first hand this week.

They lost 4-3 to Texas for the second consecutive night, this time losing on Vladimir Guerrero's 402-foot homer in the sixth off Brian Duensing, who lost a start for the first time since Sept. 29, 2009, at Detroit.

The Twins are batting .168 (17-for-101) in the series and have to get their offense going -- and avoid a four-game sweep -- Thursday with former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee on the mound.

"We were swinging good coming into the series, and they have pretty much shut us down," Twins outfielder Jason Kubel said. "This is a good-hitting park, too, and we haven't gotten anything against them."

Texas slugger Josh Hamilton belted his 30th homer of the season, a two-run shot to center in the first inning, to get the Rangers on the board.

The Twins got an RBI groundout by Danny Valencia in the second to cut the lead in half, but Guerrero's RBI single in the third pushed the Rangers' lead to 3-1. The Twins fought back with two runs in the fifth, one on Denard Span's RBI double and the other on a groundout by Joe Mauer.

They forced Rangers lefthander C.J. Wilson (13-5) to throw 29 pitches in that inning, and it looked like momentum was shifting their way.

That was before Guerrero pounded a 1-0 pitch by Duensing (7-2) into the seats in left to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead."