Kyle Farmer of the Minnesota Twins gets the Land of 10,000 Rakes sack jersey after clouting a top of the seventh home run against the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum on Sun Jul 15, 2023 (AP News photo)

Minnesota (47-46). 222 010 111 – 10. 11. 1

Oakland (25-69) 001 321 000 – 7. 10 0

Time: 3:06

Attendance: 10,534

Saturday, July 15, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The A’s decided to go the bullpen game route this afternoon, sending Austin Pruitt (1-6-4, 3.86, but with a decent WHIP of 1.26 when the decision was made) to open against the Minnesota Twins at the unlikely hour of 4:09 this afternoon.

He left off pitching at 4:18 after giving up two runs on a leadoff single by Carlos Correa, a walk to Donovan Solano, and a two out double to right center by Kyle Farmer. He was followed by more pitchers, including the honorary reliever Hogan Harris.. You could say that the bullpen went the route.

The Twins went the more conventional route and chose Pablo López, who had held the National League scoreless for an inning in this year’s all star game. He began this contest at 5-5, 3.89, representative numbers for a team that showed up at 46-46.

This afternoon, he managed to. blow a six run lead and leave with the score knotted at seven all after having thrown 106 pitches, 67 for strikes over 5-2/3 frames. All seven runs were earned; they came on eight, three walks, and a wild pitch. He escaped with a no decision, but his ERA zoomed to 4.24.

Harris, listed as a starter on the back of the pregame lineup sheet, loaded the bases with two walks and a bunt single by number nine hitter, Joey Gallo (how the mighty have fallen!). Carlos Correa drove in the walkees, and it was 4-0, Twins. Harris settled down to fan Solano and Byron Buxton before Tony Kemp got him out of the frame with a leaping grab of Max Kepler’s drive to the left field wall.

Harris surrendered another couple of runs in the third on Michael A. Taylor’s 423 foot blast that left his bat at 107.2 mph and landed in the left center field seats for his 11th. round tripper of the year.

Rookie Zach Gelof led off the home third with the A’s first hit, a triple that landed just fair in right and bounced past a diving Kepler. He scored on Nick Allen’s swinging bunt , slightly narrowing the gap to 6-1.

Ryan Noda reduced it further with his leadoff home run over the State Farm sign. in right center, his 10th four base hit and 37th run batted for the season. JJ Bleday’s single to right and Seth Brown’s ninth danger of ’23, a ringing shot that landed just inside the right field foul pole, made it. 6-4.

Harris gave up one more run, this one in the fifth, his penultimate inning. With two down and Willi Castro on third and Ryan Jeffers on first, the runner’s foiled catcher Tyler Soderstrom’s pick off throw and managed to pull off a double steal. 7-4, Twin Cities.

The A’s came roaring back in their next at bat. Consecutive single by Peterson, Allen (a beautiful bunt), and Kemp, in that order made it 7-5. A wild pitch with Bleday at bat brought in Allen, who had advanced to third on Kemp’s safety. Bledda walked, clogging the base paths with one out. The inning ended that way, with the A’s trailing, 7-6.

The recently promoted Freddy Tarnock replaced Harris with Gallo, who had walked to open the sixth, on first. He immediately induced a 6-4-3 Twin killing off the bat of Correa and sent Solano down swinging.

The A’s tied it up at seven in the sixth, pulling off a double steal of their own. The speedy Gelof stole an additional bag and had reached base in the first place by beating out a double play relay.

Allen’s sacrifice fly to center drove in the tying tally and ended López’s mound tenure. Jovani Morán relieved López at this point. Brent Rooker pinch hit for Kemp and sent a shot to dead center field that required a leap above the fence by Taylor to corral.

The momentum – and the lead – shifted back to Minnesota’s side after Tarnock had retired the first two Twins he faced in the top of the seventh. Farmer smacked a 3-2 slider 405 feet deep, into the left field seats.

Morán struck out Noda and walked Bleday in the home seventh and was replaced by Griffin Jax when Jordan Díaz was announced as batting for Brown. He stopped the A’s in their tracks.

Tarnock definitely had not stopped the Twins in theirs. He issued three walks and a double, managing to retire two batters, that enabled the visitors to tack on another run before Sam Long entered the game to strike out Kepler and keep the game close at 9-7.

Oliver Ortega pitched the bottom of the eighth for the Twins. The A’s couldn’t score off him, but Minnesota picked up another run, this one off Trevor Ray, on a triple by Castro and Jeffers’ sacrifice squeeze in the top of the ninth.

That gave Jhoan Durán a 10-7 cushion when he went for the save in the ninth. Three batters later, he’d earned his 14th save of 2023. Morán (2-2, 4.54) was the winning pitcher. Tarnok (0-1, 6.75) took the loss.

With today’s defeat, theA’s now record is 25-69, .266. Their nearest rival in the race for the worst won-loss percentage in major league history, the Kansas City Royals, lost to Tampa Bay this afternoon, 4-2.

KC now is 26-66, .283, The current all time worst record holders, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, were whitewashed, 10-0 by the Orioles in Baltimore on July 15, leaving the Spiders at 12-60,.167 en route to their 20-134, .130 season.

The 1962 New York Mets, the losingist team in the modern era of the big leagues at 40-120, .250, won their July 15 game, defeating the Giants at Candlestick, 5-3, improving the Mets’ won-lost balance to 24-62, .286.

The A’s hope to salvage a win out of the three game series, which ends tomorrow at the Coliseum at 1:07. JP Sears (1-6 3.97) will start. for Oakland; Joe Ryan (8-6, 3.70) for Minnesota.