Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Jeremiah Salmonson

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland A’s came into Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins feeling good. Friday night ended in another Khris Davis walk-off homer, and shrunk the A’s magic number to three games. The starting pitching matchup was the A’s Mike Fiers, who faced the Twins’ Chase De Jong. The A’s record coming into the game was 93-61 versus the Twins 71-82.

Fiers came out in full force for the A’s. He struck out the side in order in the first inning followed by a scoreless second inning. The third inning would be a little bump in the road for Fiers. He surrendered a double and single to start the inning. He managed to limit the damage by getting Joe Mauer to hit a sacrifice fly, Jorge Polanco to pop out, and Jake Cave to fly out to end the inning. The A’s on the other hand hadn’t been able to get much going against De Jong logging two hits through three innings.

Neither team was able to muster anything until the A’s came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. Ramon Laureano hit a one out single followed by a low line drive homer for Marcus Semien. Semien’s homer sailed over the out of town scoreboard in left field to give the A’s a 2-1 advantage in the fifth.

The next scoring chance came in the top of the seventh for the Twins. Ehire Adrianza doubled followed by a RBI single from Willians Astudillo. Mark Canha made a great effort to throw out Afrianza, but ultimately, Jonathan Lucroy wasn’t able to come up with the throw. The game was tied 2-2 at this point. In the bottom of the eighth, the A’s had a runner on third with two outs and Matt Olson grounded out to keep the game tied.

Blake Treinen came in the ninth and worked a relatively easy inning. He retired the first two Twins he faced before giving up a bloop single. He proceeded to strike out the next batter and end the Twins’ half of the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Stephen Piscotty led it off with a ringing double down the line in left. Ramon Laureano struck out, Marcus Semien reached on a throwing error, and Matt Joyce was intentionally walked. Paul Molitor then brought in his right fielder to play the infield in an effort to cut down a potential run at the plate. Mark Canha struck out, but it wasn’t over just yet. With Matt Chapman batting and the bases loaded Trevor Hildenberger unleashed a wild pitch that brought Stephen Piscotty home to score.

With the A’s win and the Rays’ loss, the A’s magic number to clinch a Wild Card birth is one game.

The A’s will wrap up their series versus the Twins on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT. Trevor Cahill (6-3, 3.77 ERA) will be on the Oakland mound and his opponent will be Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson (8-13, 3.78 ERA).