The Oakland A’s have captured the first two games of their four-game series with the Twins. Friday night, the A’s held on to beat the Twins 6-5.
It was the 11th straight time the A’s have beaten the Twins.
After cruising through four innings Kyle Gibson (10-9) ran into trouble in the fifth, as the A’s put up four against Gibson in the fifth and added two more against him in the sixth. In all, Gibson ended up giving up all six runs on five hits, while walking five. Three of those five walks came during the four-run fifth.
Coco Crisp only had one hit on the night, but it was a damaging bases clearing double in the fifth inning.
The same thing happened to A’s starter Scott Kazmir (13-4). He was cruising through the first six innings, but in the seventh things fell apart.
Trailing 6-0, the Twins finally broke through on the A’s in the seventh.
Chris Parmelee highlighted the five-run Twins seventh with a two run double. Eduardo Nunez also doubled, to cut the A’s lead down to one.
However, Oakland escaped the rally with the lead in tact, and then there bullpen did the job in the late innings. Luke Gregerson pitched a perfect eighth inning, and Oakland closer Sean Doolittle pitched around a leadoff single to pick up his 18th save.
With two outs and Eduardo Escobar running at first for Kennys Vargas who led off the ninth with a single, Josh Willingham came on to pinch hit, and blasted a pitch down the left field line, that hooked foul. Two pitches later Willingham looked at strike three and the game ended.
Willingham pulled one foul that would've put the Twins ahead in the ninth. But hooked left. Not as close as Dozier's last night.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) August 9, 2014
Trevor May is on the mound for the Twins tomorrow, in his Major League debut. Jeff Samardzja starts for Oakland.
