The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS–The Oakland Athletics’ slumping offence strung some hits together yesterday in a much-needed victory.
Seeing the A’s offence have that much success was enough for the Minnesota Twins to send Kyle Gibson to the minors.
Jharel Cotton struck out nine in six innings, and Ryon Healy hit his fourth home run of the season, to lift the Athletics to an 8-5 win over the Twins.
Cotton (3-3) gave up three runs and three hits while Stephen Vogt had two hits and two RBIs to help the A’s avoid a three-game sweep.
Santiago Casilla struck out Miguel Sano with the bases loaded in the ninth for his fifth save in six tries.
“There’s certain games that are more important than others,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said after a 2-7 trip.
“This was a big one for us, especially when we had a lead early on,” he noted.
“We needed to finish this game off and have a better feeling going home because better part of this road trip, every day was miserable.”
Gibson (0-4) gave up four runs, eight hits, and three walks in four innings and was demoted to ‘AAA’ Rochester after the game.
“It’s not working,” said Twins’ manager Paul Molitor.
“It’s putting us in a bad spot more times than not here early in the season.”
“I don’t know that I’ve had a more frustrating stretch that I can even remember,” Gibson said after his ERA ballooned to 8.20.
“I completely understand where they’re coming from and I’ve got things that I need to work on,” he conceded.
“It’s a whole lot easier to work on things in Triple-A than when you’re trying to win games in the big leagues.”
The A’s, who had scored two runs or fewer in six of their previous nine games, tied a season high with 14 hits.
Danny Santana, Eddie Rosario, and Eduardo Escobar homered for Minnesota, which threatened against an erratic Casilla in the ninth.
The closer fell behind Sano 3-0, but battled back to win the confrontation when Sano tried to check his swing but couldn’t hold up.
“I was looking for a fastball in the middle. He threw me cutters inside,” Sano noted.
Twins’ centre-fielder Byron Buxton misplayed a fly ball from Khris Davis in the first inning that helped the A’s get on the board.
In the second inning, he chased a drive from Vogt to the wall but slammed into it so hard that the door to the bullpen opened.
In the fifth, he hit the wall hard again–knocking his hat off as he tracked down a deep drive from Matt Joyce.
Elsewhere in the AL, Baltimore beat Boston 8-3, Texas dumped Houston 10-4, Chicago downed Kansas City 8-3, and Seattle pounded L.A. 11-3.
