Oakland A’s hitter Max Scheumann is frustrated after striking out against the Minnesota Twins in the top of the fifth inning at Target Field in Minneapolis during the front game of a doubleheader on Sun Jun 16, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (26-47) lost their eighth game in a row against the Minnesota Twins (39-32) 6-2. Starting pitcher J.P. Sears gave up six hits two of them home runs, four earned runs with only a single strikeout. The Twins starter Bailey Ober went 6.1 innings allowing six hits and one run with eight strikeouts. Oakland will be looking to avoid a sweep in this double header with first pitch at 4:40 PM.

Game recap: Game Three in the first of the double header opened up at 10:40 AM under partly cloudy skies and a high of 87 degrees. The weather report was favorable calling for no rain until early tomorrow morning. There would be no rain but but it was humid with a heat advisory calling for 87 degrees feeling more like 93 degrees during the game.

It was not the start that Oakland had envisioned after taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning of Friday’s game. The Twins Carlos Correa continued to hit as he has all series getting this game underway in the first inning knocking a two run home run out of the park for a 2-0 Twins lead. Minnesota would add to their lead when Royce Lewis hit a solo homer in the same inning for a 3-0 advantage.

Carlos Correa hit his second home run of the day in the fourth inning, a solo shot, and Minnesota was again on the scoreboard leading 4-0. Correa is 18 of 30 with three home runs in the past seven days. This guy is on a roll. In the seventh inning Carlos Santana hit a two-run home run. Everything was working for the Twins in this game.

Oakland did hit a solo home run in the seventh inning. Daz Cameron homered to left for a solo but again the A’s were leaning heavily on hitting home runs and when you are losing, solo home runs don’t make of an impact. Going into the eighth inning the A’s were losing 6-1. Oakland would one more run in this game in the ninth inning. Kyle McCann singled J.D. Davis home for a final score of 6-2 in favor of the Twins. Minneapolis will be looking for a sweep in the second game of the double header.

The A’s had nine hits in this game, the Twins had 12. Oakland left too many runners stranded something that has hurt them all season as they lost their eighth straight game.

It was a rough outing for J.P. Sears who allowed two home runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. The lefty had allowed eight home runs in his first 14 starts this season. He had not allowed a single home run in his past five starts so this was not a great start for him.

The Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober had a nice game going 6.1 innings allowing six hits, one run with eight strikeouts.

Game notes: Sunday afternoon the A’s got knocked off by the Twins in the front game of a double header after game three was rained out Saturday at Target Field. JP Sears pitched for 4.1 innings giving up nine hits, four runs, four hits and four walks. Sears struck out one batter.

In Friday nights game, the Twins won the game in another walk off 6-5. Oakland is no doubt sick of walk-offs ad nauseam. They lost two games in a row to the Padres Tuesday and Wednesday evening in walk offs after tying up the game in game two in the eighth inning and in game three leading 4-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning. It has been a rough stretch for the Oakland A’s who desperately needed hits late in games never seem to materialize.

The second game of this double header is slated to begin at 4:40 PM. The A’s will be looking to avoid the sweep in this game. Joey Estes will take the mound for the A’s with a 4.78 ERA and a 2-2 win/loss record. Chris Paddack gets the nod for the Twins with a 4.70 ERA and a winning 5-3 record.