Mandatory Photo Credit: Mauricio Segura – The Athletics take on the Twins on Wednesday night at Sutter Health Park.

By Jeremiah Salmonson

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento A’s and Minnesota Twins wrapped up their three-game series on Wednesday night at Sutter Health Park as the A’s came away with a 7-4 win to take the series. It was the rubber game of the series, as both teams had won one of the previous two games, with the A’s looking to take their second series of the year from the AL Central (the first was against the Kansas City Royals earlier this season).

J.T. Ginn took home the win as he improved to 9-8 on the season. The A’s improved to 53-81 as the Twins fell to 64-70 on the year.

J.T. Ginn took the ball for the A’s to close out the series and the homestand for what was his 27th appearance and 24th start for the club this season. Ginn, who has been arguably the A’s best starter this season, came into the game on Wednesday with an 8-8 record and 3.60 ERA. He struggled early in the game but managed to settle in for a solid outing. Ginn tossed six full innings while giving up four runs (three home runs) on six hits while walking two and striking out three. Ginn gave up a solo home run in the first inning, followed by two solo home runs in the second inning that did the bulk of the damage against him. Otherwise, Ginn only allowed one other run and three hits aside from those first two frames.

“For him to go out and give us six innings tonight, I thought was exceptional,” Mark Kotsay said of Ginn after the game.

The A’s first turned to the bullpen in the seventh inning in relief of Ginn, who went the first six innings of the game.

Brady Basso was first out of the pen for the A’s as he pitched both the seventh and eighth innings. Basso was lights out for the A’s as he gave up one hit and nothing else during his two innings of relief. Basso needed only 15 pitches to get through his outing and created a nice bridge for the back end of the A’s pen.

In the ninth inning, it was Elvis Alvarado who came in to try and record the save for the A’s after getting the save one night earlier. It wasn’t easy for Alvarado as he gave up a hit and a walk in the ninth, but ultimately, Elvis didn’t allow any runs and shut the door on the Twins.

On the offensive side of the ball, the A’s scored seven runs off 12 hits and a walk to drum up enough offense to defeat the Twins.

The A’s first run came in the fourth inning when Michael Stefanic doubled home Lawrence Butler to pull the A’s to within two and make it a 3-1 ballgame. It was the first double and RBI for Stefanic this season with the A’s.

The A’s second run came later that same inning as [PLAYER] grounded out and scored Lawrence Butler from third base for the A’s second run.

The A’s had to wait until the sixth inning for their next runs as they would score four in the inning.

Jeff McNeil hit a pinch-hit RBI double for the A’s in the sixth that scored one run and put runners at second and third. It was the 18th double for McNeil so far this season.

One batter later, it was Alika Williams who cleared the bases with a two-RBI triple for the A’s to give them the 5-4 lead at the time. It was the first triple for Williams this season and RBIs 11 and 12 for the shortstop.

The last run for the A’s in the sixth inning came courtesy of Darell Hernaiz, who singled home Williams for the A’s sixth run of the game.

To cap the A’s scoring, it was Lawrence Butler in the seventh inning who drilled a solo home run over the wall in left-center field. It was the 12th homer for Butler and traveled 425 feet while leaving the bat at 104.3 mph.

The A’s will have an off day on Thursday prior to welcoming the Baltimore Orioles to Sacramento for a three-game series on Friday at 6:40 p.m. PDT.