Athletics 3, Twins 2: Santana has decent outing but Twins can't shoestring a win

Things didn't start off well for the Twins, and they never got much better. After Joe Mauer grounded into a double play to end the top of the first, Coco Crisp led off the bottom of the first inning with a a home run off Twins starter Ervin Santana. Santana would ultimately go on to pitch 7 innings with only three earned runs, but even that was too much for the Twins to overcome.

The most awkward part of the game came in the top of the 7th inning when Danny Santana was removed from the game with what turned out to be a strained left hamstring that has put him on the DL. Because Miguel Sano was playing DH, and the only players on the bench were Kurt Suzuki (nursing an injury), Trevor Plouffe (sort-of nursing an injury), and Byung Ho Park, the Twins had to move Robbie Grossman from left field to center field and Eduardo Escobar from shortstop to left field. It was at this point basically everyone knew Byron Buxton was going to be called up ASAP.

Going into the 8th inning down 3-2 with a shoestring outfield, the Twins just didn't have it in them for a comeback. The Twins went down 1-2-3 in both the top of the 8th and 9th, and lost the game.