Twins blow six-run lead but hold on to beat A’s, 10-7
OAKLAND, Calif. — A funny thing happened on the way to an easy Twins victory on Saturday. But only because, for the Twins anyway — well, all’s well that ends well.
Minnesota blew a third-inning, 6-0 lead to an A’s team that started the game with the worst record in baseball, but Kyle Farmer saved the day with a solo home run in the seventh inning off rookie right-hander Freddy Tarnok as the Twins held on for a 9-7 victory at Oakland Coliseum.
Farmer was 3 for 5 with a single, two-run double and solo home run, and Byron Buxton drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk off Tarnok (0-1) for an insurance run in the eighth inning as the Twins moved back over .500 and to two games above second-place Cleveland in the American League Central.
Jovani Moran (2-2), Griffin Jax and Oliver Ortega combined to throw three scoreless innings, a Jhoan Duran pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two, for his 14th save.
Willi Castro stole home on a fifth-inning double steal to become the first Twins player to steal home twice in a season since Dan Gladden did it in 1988.
Carlos Correa went 3 for 5 with a run scored and two-run single, and Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run homer, but starter Pablo Lopez, pitching four days after his appearance with the American League all-star team in Seattle, couldn’t hold a 6-0 lead after the Twins scored two runs in each of the first three innings.
Lopez pitched 5⅔ innings, leaving with two out in the sixth after giving up a sacrifice fly to No. 9 hitter Nick Allen, which tied the game 7-7. The right-hander was charged with seven earned runs on eight hits and three walks. He struck out seven.
He was staked to a 2-0 lead after one inning, a 4-0 lead after two and a 6-0 after three. Then the bottom started dropping out.
Zack Gelof, who collected his first major league hit with a double in the Twins’ 5-4 victory on Friday, started the bottom of the third with a triple to right that eluded a diving Max Kepler, and he scored on a swinging bunt by No. 9 hitter Nick Allen to make it 6-1.
In the fourth inning, Lopez surrendered a leadoff homer to Ryan Noda, a single to J.J. Bleday and a two-run homer to Seth Brown that made it 6-4 before the right-hander had recorded a single out.
The Twins added a two-out run in the fifth when, with Ryan Jeffries on first and Willi Castro at third, Jeffries was caught in a rundown while trying to steal second. But the catcher stopped midway, and in Oakland’s defensive confusion, Castro raced home to score just ahead of Tyler Soderstrom’s tag and make it 7-4.
But the A’s weren’t done, adding two more runs in their half of the fifth. Jace Peterson opened with a single to right, and Allen laid a perfect bunt down the third base line to put runners at first and second. Leadoff hitter Tony Kemp then singled to right to bring Peterson in from second and send Allen to third.
Allen then scored when Jeffers couldn’t glove a low pitch from Lopez and it bounced back toward the fence. It was ruled a wild pitch. That made it 7-6, and after the Twins went down in order in the top of the sixth — Joey Gallo walked to start the inning but was erased on Carlos Correa’s major league-leading 18th double-play grounder — manager Rocco Baldelli sent Lopez out again to pitch the bottom of the inning.
Gelof reached on a fielder’s choice, then stole second. After Peterson walked, the two runners stole second and third, prompting a trip from pitching coach Pete Maki. With right-hander Allen due up, and six consecutive lefties scheduled to hit next, the Twins left Lopez out for one more batter.
Allen hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Gelof with the tying run.
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