Right-hander Fernando Rodriguez gave up a run in the eighth when Grossman hit a lead-off double and Kurt Suzuki singled him home with one out, cutting Oakland’s lead to 5-4.
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Former Twin Danny Valencia hit a two-run homer to give Oakland the lead in the bottom of the third and added a double to lead the Athletics to a 7-4 victory over Minnesota.
“It’s nice to be back, nice to help the team win, be relatively healthy”, Valencia said.
“We’re not thinking about two weeks ago”, manager Bob Melvin said. Oakland scored a run in the bottom of the second when Marcus Semien led off with a single and Billy Burns hit an RBI triple with one out.
Sano’s hustle kept him out of a double play that would have ended the inning, and allowed the Twins to score the go-ahead run to take a 2-1 lead.
“We have a few guys that are swinging the bat well, bullpen’s pitched pretty well, defense has been much better”, Melvin said. “We want to keep the streak going, and we’re playing well as a team”. “We’re coming up with timely hitting, something we weren’t doing earlier”.
Athletics: Rich Hill, who left Sunday’s game in the seventh inning due to a groin strain, has not been ruled out from making his next start.
And getting rewarded for it. The four-game winning streak matches the second-longest streak of the season for the A’s, who had a six-gamer from April 15-22 and one of four games May 15-18. The rookie left-hander had a season-high eight strikeouts with three walks.
The benefactor of the run support, Manaea (W, 2-3, 6.16 ERA) was able to wiggle out of jams in each of the first three innings, stranding a combined five runners over the stretch.
“Once I got ahead of him with two strikes, I couldn’t quite put the ball where I wanted to, ” Doolittle said. “I was pulling off of the front side”. The Twins struck first, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on back-to-back, two-out doubles by Grossman and Byung Ho Park.
Valencia’s two-run double in the fifth snapped a 3-all tie, though the Twins got a run back in the eighth.
Still, there’s something about entering the game in the ninth and shutting down an opponent, as Axford did Tuesday night to earn his first save of the season. Molitor said Santana will go on the 15-day disabled list and that outfielder Byron Buxton will be recalled from Triple-A Rochester. It will be Surkamp’s third stint with the big league club and his first career start against the Twins. Just when Oakland’s American League West season was ready to go off the cliff, the A’s got it together, righting the ship with a 24-29 record that, while no one’s idea of a gem, at least hasn’t killed off any seed of hope.
NOTES: A’s RHP Sonny Gray (strained right trapezius) threw 50 pitches, including his last handful to hitters, before Tuesday’s game against Minnesota. “I’ve got to go out and have that dominant mindset like nobody’s going to get a hit off me”. Gray is scheduled to throw a bullpen on Thursday…. The A’s were impressed enough that Alvarez, recovering from right elbow surgery, will throw a 20-pitch inning for Class-A Stockton on Friday.
Twins: LHP Pat Dean (1-1, 3.43) is scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale.
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All of the A’s runs came off Twins starter Erwin Santana, who had only lost twice in 12 previous career starts at the Coliseum.
