Don’t look now, but there are two teams in the playoff hunt in the Bay Area. Tom Milone worked around 10 hits over six innings and was backed by four early runs as the A’s cruised to a 9-3 victory Saturday evening against the Minnesota Twins. The win ensures another series win, and Oakland will attempt to sweep Sunday afternoon.
It was a power surge for the A’s offense as Chris Carter, Yoenis Cespedes, Brandon Moss and Seth Smith all went deep to pace the offense. Josh Reddick added three hits and scored two runs as the A’s had 12 hits total. That was more than enough for Milone, who worked out of multiple jams to hold the Twins to two runs despite 10 hits and a walk in six innings.
Oakland still can’t seem to figure out Josh Willingham, who hit his fifth home run in as many games against his former team. However, tonight’s blast game, with the score 8-2, did not cause any real damage.
The A’s put the game away early as a two-out rally was started with back-to-back opposite field hits by Reddick and Cespedes whose double opened the scoring. After Moss was hit on an 0-2 pitch, Carter crushed a fastball into the left center field bullpen to make it 4-0.
Cespedes added his 10th home run on an opposite field bomb in the third inning to make it 6-0. Home runs by Smith in the fifth and Moss in the sixth put the game well out of reach. Smith just missed his second home run in the ninth, instead plating Kurt Suzuki with a triple to close the scoring.
Jordan Norberto, Evan Scribner and Jerry Blevins combined to allow a single run in the final three innings as the A’s continue to make noise and appear to be making a move to seriously compete for a wild-card spot in the American League.
With the win, the A’s moved to 45-43 on the year and will look to sweep the Twins Sunday afternoon at Target Field. First pitch is set for 11:10 a.m. as Jarrod Parker will look to bounce back against Minnesota starter Brian Duensing.
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