Buxton Scores Four Times as Minnesota Rolls Past Athletics 9-6

Byron Buxton crossed the plate four times and Zebby Matthews held the Athletics to one earned run over seven innings as Minnesota walked out of this one with a 9-6 final. The Athletics made it look interesting with a three-run ninth, but by then the damage was long done.

Minnesota wasted no time. In the first, Bell doubled to left — a call that survived an umpire review — and Buxton scored to put the Twins up 1-0. Bell added another RBI in the third, this time grounding out to first to score Buxton again, pushing it to 2-0. The Athletics answered briefly when Butler reached on an infield single to shortstop and Bolte scored to make it 2-1, but that's as close as they'd get for a long time.

The fifth inning is where this game effectively ended. Kreidler sent a 399-foot shot to left for a solo home run, and the win probability swung from 37% to 23% for the Athletics on that single swing. A Clemens single to center scored Buxton again to make it 4-1, and then the sixth turned into a rout — Keaschall doubled to left, scoring both Culpepper and Lee to push it to 6-1, and Bell capped the frame with a sacrifice fly to left that scored Kreidler and made it 7-1. Minnesota piled on two more in the eighth on a Clemens single and a Culpepper infield single, stretching the lead to 9-1. The story of the night was how thoroughly Minnesota's lineup dismantled this game before the seventh-inning stretch.

Matthews was the backbone of it all — 7.0 innings, 6 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts. That's a performance that looks like a genuine ace outing, and it gave the bullpen a clean situation to protect. The Athletics' ninth-inning rally — McNeil doubled to score two, Gelof doubled to score McNeil, Butler doubled to score Gelof — made the final 9-6 and gave the box score a misleading tightness. McNeil finished 3-for-5 with 2 RBI and was the only Athletic who appeared to show up with any real urgency. Culpepper went 4-for-5 for Minnesota, and Bell drove in 3 despite going just 1-for-3. This was a complete team effort from the Twins, and the Athletics' late cosmetic scoring shouldn't obscure how thoroughly they were handled for eight innings.