Oakland A’s third base coach Eric Martins (3) congratulates JJ Bleday (33) for his top of the third inning solo home run in the second game of the doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis on Sun Jun 18, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (26-48) fought back in game four of their series with the Minnesota Twins (40-32) tying this game up three times. They hit a couple of home runs and finished the game with 11 hits. Tyler Soderstrom has shown up beautifully.

He has hit four home runs in a seven-game span. He shares that milestone with some heavy hitters the likes of Jose Canseco, Reggie Jackson, Jimmie Fox and Mickey Cochrane. This is the A’s ninth loss in a row the longest this season coming up short in this one 8-7 another one-run loss.

Sunday evening the A’s played the second game of their double header with the Twins and couldn’t avoid the sweep getting edged by one run. Oakland had a loss in the first game 6-2 of the doubleheader and the A’s ended up dropping all four games. The A’s are on a nine game losing streak and return back to the Coliseum on Tuesday night.

Game recap: Joey Estes took the mound for game four with a 5.97 ERA. The Twins Chris Paddack was on the hill for Minnesota. Neither pitcher lasted long in a marathon of hits for both teams in the early innings. Estes went 2.2 innings allowing eight hits, six earned runs and only two strikeouts. Paddack went 2.1 innings allowing five hits, five earned runs and no strikeouts. Not a great outing for either pitcher.

Royce Lewis got this game going hitting the first home run of the game, a two-run shot in the first inning to take the early 2-0 lead. The second inning was a wild affair with each team scoring three runs.

In the top of the second, Seth Brown doubled reaching third on two errors by the Twins that allowed Daz Cameron and Tyler Soderstrom to score. Zack Gelof came to the plate and he also hit a double and Seth Brown scored giving the A’s a 3-2 lead. That lead was short-lived when Trevor Larnach hit a three run home run taking back the lead 5-3.

The A’s apparently wanted in on the action hitting two home runs in the third inning. JJ Bleday and Tyler Soderstrom both hit solo home runs to tie up this game at five apiece. Minnesota took back the lead in the bottom of the third off an Austin Martin double and Carlos Santana scored for a 6-5 Twins lead. Both teams were enjoying a great offensive effort.

Minnesota would tack on another run in the 6th inning. Carlos Correa who was having an incredible series singled Royce Lewis home extending their lead to 7-5. Again Oakland would have to play catchup. The A’s made up those two runs tying the game back up at seven in the seventh inning. Tyler Soderstrom singled JJ Bleday home and Shea Langeliers singled Miguel Andujar home and it was a whole new ball game.

In the bottom of the eighth once again the tie was broken when the Twins Jose Miranda homered for Minnesota’s third home run of the game. The Twins had taken back the lead in this see-saw game. Through eight innings the Twins had 14 hits and the A’s had 11. There had been three ties in this game in a most productive offensive effort for both teams. The A’s could not muster any offense in the ninth inning and lost their ninth game in a row 8-7.

The hitting that we saw from Oakland was encouraging with the 11 hits but the team has lost so many one run games in the late innings lately. Having to come from behind so often is discouraging for this team. Oakland has now figured out a way to get back into games and now they need to close out those games.

Oakland will have the day off . They begin a three-game series Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals at the Coliseum. Probable pitchers will be Hogan Harris for the A’s with a record of 0-0, 2.49 ERA and Alec March for the Royals with a record of 5-3, 3.63 ERA. First pitch for the Tuesday matchup is scheduled for 6:40 PM.