Twins 14, Athletics 4: Twins Crush Oakland, Secure Series Win

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Sonny Gray, 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K (84 pitches, 55 strikes, 65.4%)
Home Runs: none
Top 3 WPA: Gary Sánchez (.264), Luis Arráez (.125), Carlos Correa (.125)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Sánchez, Urshela remain hot, push across four runs
The Twins were off to a great start offensively, with the pair of former Yankees pushing across four early runs for Minnesota. After Luis Arráez and Carlos Correa hit back-to-back singles and Max Kepler drew a two-out walk to load the bases, red-hot Gary Sánchez hit a slow liner to left to score two runs. In the next at-bat, Gio Urshela smacked an RBI single to right to bring home Kepler and make it 3-0 Minnesota.

Sánchez has been living his best stretch as a Twin. Not only did he homer in the first two games of this series, but he carried into this game an OPS of .916 in his previous 15 games. That’s a relief for Twins fans, as he posted a .606 OPS in 12 games during the month of April. Urshela, who is also seeing some improvement as of late, now has at least one hit in five of his last seven games.

Making his second start since being reinstated from the injured list, Sonny Gray struggled a bit to close out the innings early. After quickly getting two outs in the bottom of the first, he gave up back-to-back hits, and Oakland got a run back on a Seth Brown RBI single.

Sánchez, again, provided him with some more run support in the third when he hit a two-out double to score Jorge Polanco from first. He now has four extra-base hits in the last four games. But Gray would go on to give up three more two-out hits in the next two innings, including an RBI single to Christian Bethancourt in the bottom of the third, to cut the Twins lead to two once again.

Twins begin a hard-hit bonanza, score seven more runs
Minnesota provided a quick response to Oakland’s potential rally. After Byron Buxton drew a two-out walk in the top of the fourth, the Twins hit back-to-back doubles to score two more runs. First, it was Arráez with a 96.5 MPH exit velocity fly ball to center to score Buxton, then it was Correa with a 105.6 MPH rocket to score Arráez. Speaking of Correa, what a great way to come back from the IL. This was the third time he made solid contact in the game, with his first-inning hit reaching 109.8 MPH coming off the bat.

The offense kept putting men on base, as they loaded the bases (but didn’t cash in) in the fifth and had seven men reach in the sixth. Arráez and Correa drew walks against reliever Kirby Snead to lead off the inning, and they were both brought home by a Polanco single and a Kepler sac-fly, making it 8-2 Minnesota.

Snead’s nightmare inning continued as he gave up a walk to Urshela, which put two men on, and the Twins made him pay. Ryan Jeffers hit a hard double to left (104.9 MPH exit velocity) to bring home both runners, then he himself scored on a Nick Gordon single. The entire Twins lineup had an at-bat in the sixth.

Gray gets on a roll, retires ten in a row
It wasn’t all just about the offense today. After giving up Oakland’s second run in the third inning, Gray went on to retire ten consecutive batters, including three consecutive 1-2-3 innings.

This was a very encouraging outing for him, giving him a much-needed morale boost. He wasn’t very sharp in his last start last Friday against the Guardians. He threw only 56.1% strikes despite the season-high eight strikeouts and gave up four walks.

Today, he seemed much more comfortable with his command, which enabled him to complete six innings with a similar pitch count as his last start, when he tossed only 4 1/3 innings.

The Twins bullpen wasn’t nearly as sharp as Gray was. Yennier Cano took over for him in the seventh, and he loaded the bases before recording an out. Fortunately, after a mound visit, he was able to limit the damage to a minimum. The A’s got one run back on a Tony Kemp forceout, and that was it. In the eighth, Cody Stashak also allowed Oakland to score, when Chad Pinder doubled and scored on a Luis Barrera single.

With outfielder Pinder pitching for the A's in the ninth, the bats got a couple more insurance runs with an RBI double by Arráez, his third hit of the afternoon, and an RBI single by Gilberto Celestino. That gave Jhoan Duran some more cushion to finish the game in the bottom of the inning (not that he needed it).

What’s Next?
The Twins have a day off on Thursday, and they remain on the road after that. They start a three-game series against the Royals in Kansas City on Friday, with the first game set to start at 7:10 pm CDT. Devin Smeltzer (1.80 ERA) is expected to make the start, facing Daniel Lynch (3.30 ERA).

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet