The Athletics wrapped up the first half of this week’s road trip this afternoon when they completed their sweep of the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis. Jack Perkins got the start today against José Ureña for the Twins.
The A’s jumped on the board first in the top of the second inning. Willie MacIver took a pitch off the elbow guard, Brett Harris singled, and Nick Kurtz walked. Lawrence Butler doubled off the left filed wall scoring all three baserunners. Brent Rooker knocked a double of his
own, easily scoring Butler. A wild pitch moved Rook to third with two outs. Soderstrom walked. Darell Hernaiz blooped a single over the shortstop’s head to drive in Rooker and move Soderstrom to second. Carlos Cortez singled, scoring Soderstrom. Willie MacIver, who led off the inning, flew out to end it, but not before the A’s pounded José Ureña for six runs in the second.
In the bottom of the fourth, Perkins loaded the bases with no outs. Trevor Larnach doubled to open the inning and then Perkins walked both Brooks Lee and Luke Keaschall. Perkins induced two soft contact outs, but James Outman singled off the glove of Nick Kurtz to score the first run of the day for the Twins. Keaschall scored on a grounder up the middle, but when Clemens tried to score, Schuemann nailed him at home, limiting the damage to two runs. At the end of five, The A’s still led 6-2.
Michael Tonkin replaced José Ureña in the top half of the sixth. Nick Kurtz greeted him with his 26th homer of the season, a solo shot to give the A’s a 7-2 lead.
Ben Bowden replaced Jack Perkins in the bottom of the inning. Perkins gave way after 90 pitches in five full innings. He gave up two earned runs with three hits, two walks and two strikeouts. He’s in line for the win if the lead holds. Bowden sent the Twins down 1-2-3 in the sixth.
With one out in the top of the seventh MacIver walked and stole second. He scored on a Max Schuemann base hit. Osvaldo Bido entered the game in the bottom of the seventh. He only needed seven pitches to set the Twins down.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Tyler Soderstrom singled. That brought him to 4-4 on the day with a walk. His first inning single increased his hit streak to nineteen games. Jason Giambi holds the team record with twenty-five while the overall franchise record belongs to Bill Lamar at 29 games in 1925 with the Philadelphia Athletics.
Bido stayed on to pitch the ninth for Mark Kotsay’s A’s. Kody Clemens led off with a single. Royce Lewis followed with a double off of Soderstrom’s glove in left. He almost made a great running catch, but a bobble off the wall led to the double and a run scoring. Bido completed the three-out save to secure the 8-3 victory and the series sweep.
