By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – It’s fitting that the A’s would win by one run tonight. It was Bob Melvin’s 801st win, the A’s have beaten the Twins 11 straight times and the A’s now have 71 wins on the season.

Scott Kazmir threw a beauty of a game tonight except for a gut wrenching 5-run seventh inning that had the Coliseum in a collective gasp. Also a Sean Doolittle misstep in the bottom of the ninth that Josh Willingham took to deep left field that could have put the Twins in the lead missed just left of the foul pole.

With the win tonight the A’s (71-44) are now a season high 27 games over .500 and have won 15 of their last 20 games at home.

When Kazmir left in the fifth, the A’s bullpen of Cook, Gregerson and Doolittle came in to close the game and set an Oakland record of 28 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

“That’s good right?” said Bob Melvin. “They’ve been on a roll, no doubt about it. Since we figured out where the roles were, they can prepare a little bit better. We have a lot of quality and depth down there. It’s quite a feat.”

On Kazmir tonight, Melvin praised the starting pitcher.

“He was on a roll. It looked like he may finish the game. He made some decent pitches but maybe just got some balls up in that inning. It was a little bit of a surprise to see him give up those hits.”

The A’s got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when after a Vogt walk, Sam Fuld dragged a bunt that landed him safely at first. However on a catching error by the Minnesota first baseman, it moved Fuld to second and Vogt to third. Sogard was up next and walked after five pitches to load the bases.

On the seventh pitch of his at bat Coco Crisp hit a deep triple to right center field that brought everyone home for the first runs of the night and give the A’s a 3-0 lead. While pitching to Moss later in the inning, The Twins Gibson threw the ball in the dirt that squirted pass the catcher and brought Crisp in from third and moved Donaldson to second and make it a 4-0 Oakland lead.

In the bottom of the sixth Josh Reddick started off with a four pitch walk and Vogt followed with a single to give the A’s men on first and second. The reliable Sam Fuld hit a slow grounder to first that moved Reddick and Vogt over. Eric Sogard then hit a 94-mph 2 seam fastball into right field that ended up at the wall and scored Reddick and Vogt to give the A’s a 6-0 lead.

Minnesota got on the board in the top of the seventh when Plouffe hit a hard single past Donaldson into left field that scored Danny Santana who was on third after leading off the inning with a single. After a Vargas strike out, Oswaldo Arcia smacked a single to center field that scored Dozier who was on second to give the Twins a pair of runs in the inning.

These runs snapped a 19 inning scoreless streak for the Twins. The Twins weren’t done.

Chris Parmlee hit a double into deep left field that escaped Moss and drove in two runs to make it a 6-4 Oakland lead.

Even with Ryan Cook coming in to relieve Kazmir, he gave up a double to Nunez who scored Parmlee to make it a 6-5 game.

Gregerson came in to relive Cook and then after a perfect inning, Sean Doolittle same in to close the came.

He gave up a single to the first Twin batter which made the entire O.Co Coliseum nervous. Doolittle calmed down and struck out the next batter then coerced the next Twin to fly to center field. Josh Willingham came in to pitch hit as the Twins last batter and after a monster shot that if foul would have been a home run was struck out by Doolittle who now holds the Oakland record for saves in a season by a left handed pitcher with 18.

The A’s and Twins face-off again tomorrow when the Twins send Trevor May vs. The Shark Jeff Samardzija, game time 6:05 pm.