A’s 7, Twins 1: Mauer passes Carew on team hit list, that’s about it

Joe Mauer now has the second-most hits in Twins team history, behind only Kirby Puckett. The other Twins weren’t hitting much that Oakland threw.

An odd sequence resulted in both team’s first runs. Jed Lowrie walked to lead off the fourth inning, then advanced to third on a Jake Odorizzi throwing error. Matt Olson sac flied him in. Then, Eddie Rosario led off the bottom with a single, reaching third on a Sean Manaea error. Miguel Sano sac flied him in.

It would have been fun if this copycat scoring happened all game, but like the headline says, it wasn’t to be. Jonathan Lucroy singled in Mark Canha for the go-ahead run one inning later. The Twins had Rosario on third again with one out in the sixth, Oakland played their infield shallow, and Sano couldn’t hit one deep enough this time.

Incidentally, that was the second time Paul Molitor called for a no-out bunt. Worked out the first time, not so much later.

Oakland does not give up late-inning leads, not at all, and their bullpen held the Twins hitless in the last three frames. Fernando Rodney walked Mitch Garver and struck out everyone else he faced. Four more Twins would whiff in the last two innings. The A’s have now won 69 straight games when leading after the seventh.

A three-run blast by Matt Chapman put things out of reach, the first runs record-holding journeyman Oliver Drake had allowed over seven outings as a Twin. Addison Reed would serve up two additional dongs.

Odorizzi ended a curious little streak. He’d made 30 straight starts without getting an out in the seventh inning, apparently the sixth-longest-such period in MLB history for a starter. He lasted 7.0 tonight.

Oh, and Tyler Austin hit a foul ball onto the Budweiser Roof Deck. It was said on radio that this never happened in a game before.

Your Comment Of The Game Thread goes to RuthBaderTwinsburg for this discussion about being confused as a kid what the “TC” stood for on Twins helmets: “‘I grew up (and still live) in Yankees country. My “friends” had lots of theories as to what it stood for. All were wrong and many aren’t suitable for this setting.’”

Your Picture Of The Game Thread goes to TeamCrazyMatt, who shared his scorecard from the game using Twins nicknames. Robot Roll Call:

Tomorrow the Twins will honor Jim Thome before the game, and some old friends are expected to be in attendance. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10, and obviously the ceremony would be earlier than that.