Milone, A's Shut Down Twins, 5-1

The Oakland Athletics committed four errors on Wednesday afternoon and still won with ease, as the Twins couldn't capitalize against Oakland starter Tommy Milone in a 5-1 loss. The victory allowed the Athletics to keep pace in the AL Wild Card chase and sent the Twins to a 1-5 record on this road trip, with a 4-gamer against Texas on tap. As Liz Lemon has been quoted on other topics: blerg.

Today marked Liam Hendriks' third opportunity to lock down a spot in Minnesota's starting rotation heading into 2013. The results were much the same as they were the first two times: inconclusive. He started poorly, with a walk, wild pitch and single in the first three batters giving Oakland a 1-0 advantage. After the Twins evened the score, Hendriks got touched up in the third and fourth for three more runs, as Coco Crisp was constantly on base or at the plate scoring runs. I think there were three or four of him on the field at the same time. That can't be legal. Anyway, Hendriks: 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 2 K. Nothing to write home about, especially considering the postage costs to Perth.

As noted, the Twins were able to tie the score at 1-1 in the second, on a groundout by Sweet Drew. Unfortunately, they opened the inning with runners on second and third and nobody out, and the Butera productive out was all they had to show for it. After that, Milone cruised, even with his defense tripping over the ottoman at every turn, or in Josh Reddick's case, fielding a pop fly with his ribcage. He allowed just two hits in 8 very good innings. Ryan Cook closed out the game.

Studs: Milone, Crisp, who hit a solo home run off of Tyler Robertson to put a bow on his day.

Duds: your favorite team.