Twins Bury Athletics Early, Survive Late Scare, Win 11-8

Minnesota built a 7-0 lead before Nick Kurtz even stepped to the plate, then watched Oakland rip off six unanswered runs to make it a genuine game. The Twins held on 11-8, but this one was far messier than the final margin suggests.

The game was effectively decided in the first two innings — and not by anything resembling clean baseball. Kody Clemens tripled to right in the first, then scored on a throwing error by shortstop Williams, with Lewis also coming around to score. That sequence swung Minnesota's win probability from 70% to 84% before the Athletics had recorded three outs. The damage continued in the second: a balk pushed Jackson home and advanced the runners, then Ryan Jeffers singled to right to score Lee and Martin, pushing the lead to 6-0. A Kreidler run on a catcher's throwing error in the fourth made it 7-0. Luis Morales lasted just 4.2 innings for Oakland, allowing 4 hits and 2 earned runs — though the unearned damage was far worse. Connor Prielipp, meanwhile, was sharp: 5.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 5 strikeouts.

Oakland's comeback attempt was genuinely dramatic. Nick Kurtz launched a 412-foot homer to center in the sixth, scoring McNeil and Wilson to make it 3-7 — a three-run shot that, at least briefly, made the bullpen sweat. The Athletics then strung together three more runs in the seventh on a walk, a groundout, and a sacrifice fly to pull within 6-8. The problem, as it appears, is that Minnesota answered every time Oakland got close. Keaschall's sacrifice fly in the seventh pushed the lead back to three, and Kreidler's double and Jeffers' infield single in the eighth extended it to 11-6. Kreidler finished 3-for-4 with 3 runs scored; Jeffers went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. Those two look like the real story of this win.

Oakland made it interesting in the ninth — McNeil singled home a run, and a fielder's choice brought in another — but the rally stalled at 8-11. Jeff McNeil finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI for the Athletics, and Kurtz's three-RBI night was the lone bright spot in an offense that was otherwise chasing a deficit all evening. The story of this game, frankly, appears to be Minnesota's ability to manufacture runs through errors, balks, and situational hitting rather than anything resembling a power display — and Oakland's inability to stop the bleeding early enough to matter.