Photo credit: @Athletics

By Matthew Harrington

After a move down the batting order, Oakland A’s DH Khris Davis is starting to show signs of life again. Friday night at Target Field in Minneapolis “Khrush” knocked in two runs on two hits as the A’s beat the Twins 5-3. Liam Hendriks picked up his seventh save of the season and Marcus Semien hit his 15th home run of the season. Marwin Gonzalez went deep for the Twins.

Semien put the Green and Gold on the board early, taking Minnesota ace Jake Odorizzi’s third pitch of the game out of the park for a 1-0 lead. After Odorizzi bounced back for two outs, Mark Canha singled and Ramon Laureano walked to bring Davis up to the plate.

Davis entered the game hitting .167 over his last 15 games, and was moved down in the batting order earlier in the week. He laced a single off Odorizzi in a 1-1 count to plate Canha for a 2-0 lead before Minnesota had even taken its first cuts.

The rare error from Matt Olson with runners on second and third in the bottom of the second pushed across a Twins run. An inning later, Gonzalez hit his 11th homer of the season with Nelson Cruz on base to take a 3-2 lead off Chris Bassitt. Bassitt (7-4, 3.96 ERA) would hang on for the win with five innings of two-earned-run ball on five hits.

He’d be the beneficiary of a Matt Olson RBI single in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game. Davis’ second RBI single of the game an inning later off reliever Ryne Harper (3-2, 3.18 ERA) would give Oakland the 4-3 lead. Chad Pinder would single in a run off Harper as well for the 5-3 final.

Ryan Buchter pitched 1 1/3 scoreless for Oakland (56-42), Joakim Soria added an inning and Liam Hendriks went 1 2/3 to nail down his seventh save against one of the toughest lineups in the majors. The Twins (59-37) will look to bounce back with All-Star Jose Berrios on the hill Saturday while Oakland counters with Brett Anderson.