Athletics Erase 3-Run Hole With Six-Run Sixth, Top Twins 7-4

Minnesota hit three home runs before the fourth inning and still lost. A six-run sixth — capped by Alika Williams drilling a two-run triple to center — turned a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead that Oakland never surrendered.

The Twins came out swinging. Brooks Lee opened the scoring with a 373-foot shot to right in the first, then Trevor Larnach followed with a 369-foot homer to right in the second, and Kaelen Culpepper put an exclamation point on it with a 428-foot blast to left in the same inning. Just like that, Minnesota was up 3-0 before Oakland had even blinked. Connor Prielipp was doing his job, and the Twins looked every bit like a team ready to steal one on the road.

Oakland chipped away quietly. Tommy White — who finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored — was a constant irritant on the bases. In the fourth, a Stefanic double plated Butler and White eventually scored on a groundout to make it 3-2. Minnesota answered with a Lewis sacrifice fly in the sixth to push the lead back to 4-2, and that's when J.T. Ginn's night ended after 6.0 innings, 6 hits, and 4 earned runs. What followed was the kind of inning that decides games. A McNeil double scored Heim and moved White to third. Then Williams stepped up and tripled to center, scoring White and McNeil in one swing — the win probability lurched from 41% to 71% in Oakland's favor on that single play. Hernaiz singled home Williams immediately after to make it 6-4, and the Twins' bullpen had nothing left to stop the bleeding.

Lawrence Butler put the finishing touch on it in the seventh, going deep 425 feet to center to make it 7-4 — the final score. Butler finished 1-for-3 with a homer, an RBI, and two runs scored. Williams was the real story, going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored in what looks like the defining performance of the night. Brady Basso was immaculate in relief — 2.0 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs — and Elvis Alvarado closed it out with a clean frame. Minnesota's three-homer start was genuinely impressive, but the story of this game was Oakland's sixth inning: four runs, three hits, and a complete reversal of fortune that the Twins simply had no answer for.