Minnesota Wins Second Straight, Beat Athletics 4-3 in the 10th

The Twins took on the Athletics in Chico's Bail Bonds Coliseum Overstock.com Coliseum tonight, and for the second night in a row, managed to win a 1-run game. Pavano pitched a solid game, going 7 full innings and only giving up 1 earned run. After winning an important game last night, it was nice to see the Twins step up to get the win tonight.

Notes, studs, and duds after the jump.

Pavano wasn't anything incredible tonight-he only struck out two-but he limited the walks (none!) and for the most part, kept runners off the bases. There was a costly error made by Trevor Plouffe in the second inning that allowed two Oakland runs to score, but otherwise, until the 6th inning, Pavano held the A's scoreless. Perkins would come in for 1.1 inning and allow one hit, but strike out two batters. After Perkins, Joe Nathan made an appearance in a tight game, and managed to get out of a little jam after allowing a hit and a walk. Matt Capps came in to close the door, and with a dramatic fly ball to right field to end the game, Capps notched his seventh save of the season and the twins won their second game in a row.

The Twins again tonight scored a run in the first inning, which is always a pleasant surprise. Brandon McCarthy pitched a so-so game (technically a quality start), with 7 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 1 SO, 0 BB. Not a bad line, but the A's offense couldn't string together enough hits against the Twins to get the extra runs they needed. We also saw a couple former Twins tonight in Grant Balfour and Brian Fuentes. Thanks to a throwing error by Daric Barton (horrible spelling...) in the 10th, Fuentes was given the loss and his former team was given the win.

Notes
-Overstock.com Coliseum has to be the most ridiculous name in MLB for a park, right? I mean...really. I am going to start advocating that they change it to Chico's Bail Bonds Coliseum next, because it's equally ridiculous.
-The attendance tonight was ~15,000 people, which is apparently average for the A's. Nothing to really add to that, it's just sad, as the A's are (were...) tied for first place in their division.
-Delmon Young made a pinch-hit appearance after being benched for the second day in a row. He managed to get a hit, which is good, and I'm hoping the bench time cleared his head a bit.
-The Twins will be able to attend Harmon Killebrew's funeral while they're in Arizona for a series this weekend. There will be a public service at Target Field next week.

Studs
-Carl Pavano. I know he only struck out two batters (matching his whole May total so far, which is interesting), but he didn't walk anyone, and had there not been an error early in the game, probably could have managed to allow only 1 run...).
-Denard Span. 2-for-5, with a nice play.
-Ben Revere's catch in the MASSIVE AMOUNT OF FOUL TERRITORY OAKLAND HAS (not sure if you've heard about it or not). He just flew over there and made a really nice sliding catch.
-Trevor Plouffe. He redeemed himself by going 2-for-4 on the night and driving in 3 of the Twins' 4 runs.
-Justin Morneau. He went 2-for-4, and frankly, just seeing him hit the ball again makes him a stud.

Duds
-Trevor Plouffe. Error that allows 2 runs to score will get you on the duds list. Sorry.
-Michael Cuddyer, Danny Valencia, Drew Butera. All 0-fers tonight. No good.

It was nice to write a winning recap again. Let's hope they keep it up tomorrow.