MINNEAPOLIS _ Eddie Rosario's pinch hit three-run home run in the seventh inning on Thursday gave the Twins a one-run lead while charging up a Target Field crowd that had been watching their team's offense sputter for the previous six innings. The Twins, after solo homers by Mitch Garver and C.J. Cron in the eighth inning, beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-3, to end their first three-game losing streak of the season.
The rally started when Luis Arraez hit a one-out double and Miguel Sano walked. At that point, Oakland manager Bob Melvin replaced starter Mike Fiers with right-hander Yusmeiro Petit.
Jake Cave was due up, but Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent Rosario to the plate instead. It took one pitch for Baldelli to look like a genius, as Rosario blasted a 414-foot home run to right.
The score was tied at 1 in the sixth when the A's took the lead. Ramon Laureano reached on an infield with one out. Khris Davis lined out to left for the second out, but Jurickson Profar belted a two-run home run to right field off a 93-mile-per-hour fastball from Kyle Gibson.
Until then, Gibson had been the stopper the Twins desperately needed. He had limited the A's to one run on five hits through the first five innings of the game. Since he threw eight shutout innings at Kansas City on June 14, Gibson had posted a 5.09 ERA over his next six appearances (including two of one inning).
"He shows us every time he goes out there that he can make pitches and command his off-speed stuff and get swings and misses," Baldelli said before the game. "He does all the things that you have to do. We definitely see it at times when he puts those efforts together for the full outing, but I think just the ability to work through those tough spots in the middle of the game is the point here."
While Gibson tried to keep the game close until the offense could come out of hibernation, the offense continued to sputter.
This is what it has come to. The mighty and powerful Twins, the best power hitting team in baseball, now is bunting in the third inning.
But that's what happened on Thursday as a pitchers' duel broke out between the Gibson and Fiers. Sano led off the third with a walk and Cave followed with a single. That brought up Ehire Adrianza, who dropped down a sacrifice bunt, moving the runners to second and third.
And it worked, sort of, as Sano was able to score on a wild pitch for the first run of the game. The inning ended one batter later, as Cave took off for home on contact while Max Kepler lined out.
Then the Twins got greedy. Arraez led off the fifth with a walk, followed by a Sano single. Cave, this time, squared around to bunt but pulled back as Fiers came inside, nearly hitting him. So close that Arraez actually thought Cave was nicked. Arraez was off the bag far enough for catcher Josh Phegley to throw him out at second. Cave struck out and Adrianza hit into a fielder's choice, ending a promising inning.
That's the way things are going for the Twins these days.
Gibson shut the A's out until the fourth inning, when Laureano singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch then scored on Davis' double. Oakland entered the game as the hottest team in baseball, as this loss dropped the A's to 36-17 since May 16.
The game was delayed for about 10 minutes in the fourth when a foul ball off Cron's bat went straight back and clobbered home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott on his facemask. Twins assistant trainer Matt Biancuzzo went to his aid as the rest of the umpiring crew jogged in to check on him.
After a couple minutes, Wolcott came out of the game and was replaced at home plate by Bruce Dreckman.
