Pinch-hitter Trevor Larnach delivers tiebreaking RBI double to send Twins past Athletics 6-4
Pinch-hitter Trevor Larnach broke an eighth-inning tie with an RBI double and the Minnesota Twins rallied to beat the Oakland Athletics 6-4 on Wednesday night.
After Max Kepler opened the eighth with his fourth hit of the game, Larnach sent a 1-1 pitch from Dany Jiménez off the wall in right field that evaded a leaping Esteury Ruiz. Pinch-runner Andrew Stevenson scored from first. Designated hitter Ryan Jeffers, who hit a tying two-run homer in the sixth, followed with a sacrifice fly that scored Larnach and Minnesota won for the sixth time in seven games.
It was the 41st come-from-behind win of the season for the AL Central-champion Twins (85-73).
The loss dropped the Athletics to 48-110, and Oakland became the first team to lose 110 games since the Detroit Tigers in 2019. Also, it is the highest number of losses for the A's since the 1916 Philadelphia A's set a franchise record by going 36-117.
Minnesota's Dallas Keuchel (2-1) worked 1 2/3 innings of relief and earned the win. Griffin Jax stranded a pair of runners in the ninth and picked up his fourth save of the season.
Pablo López went 4 1/3 innings in a planned shorter outing in his final start of the regular season. The 27-year-old right-hander will start the first game of the playoffs for the Twins.
Jiménez (0-2) allowed two runs on two hits in his inning of work for Oakland, which has lost 11 of 13 games.
Former Minnesota outfielder Brent Rooker drove in two runs, including an RBI single in the fifth, to put the Athletics ahead 3-2. Oakland had trailed 2-0 early.
Rookie Edouard Julien led off the bottom of the first with his 15th homer of the season for the Twins.
Minnesota's comeback prevented Oakland rookie Joey Estes from earning his first major league victory in his second career appearance. He started for the A's and allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings.