A’s Continue Domination Over Twins In 8-3 Route

The Oakland Athletics are now 12-2 in their last 14 outings against the Minnesota Twins after defeating the Twinkies in their home opener by the score of 8-3. During that 14-game span, Oakland has outscored its counterpart up north by the average score of 5.4-1.9. 

Oakland opened up the scoring against Twins starter Kevin Correia in the second as both Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick drove in runs. After a controversial foul call on what looked like a homer by A’s shortstop Jed Lowrie in the third inning, Oakland tacked on three more on long drives off the wall by Brandon Moss and Alberto Callaspo.

At some point early in the game, it became apparent that the A’s were ready to tee off Correia, who was starting the Twins opener at Target Field. Minnesota would make a game of it in the bottom of the third, scoring two runs on RBI’s by Jason Kubel and former Athletic Kurt Suzuki to pull to within 5-3.

Jesse Johnson, USA Today: Norris’ homer was his first of the season.

Correia would shut the A’s down for two innings before Derek Norris knocked him out of the game with a homer in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 6-3. Samuel Deduno balked home a run in the seventh to give the A’s a four-run lead before a Cespedes sac fly plated the final run of the game in an emphatic 8-3 A’s win.

Oakland starter Scott Kazmir, fresh off a dominating performance against the Seattle Mariners in the second game of the season, didn’t have his best stuff. He labored through six innings, allowing 10 baserunners in a less-than-stellar performance. The free-agent acquisition did, however, earn his second win in as many starts. Fernando Abad, Dan Otero and Ryan Cook closed out the game for the A’s by not allowing a single hit in three innings of work.

Minnesota will host Oakland in Game 2 of this three-game set on Wednesday after a rare mid-series day off. It will send Phil Hughes to the mound against A’s starter Jesse Chavez. Hughes, who signed as a free agent from the New York Yankees, was rocked in his first start as a member of the Twins last week. He yielded four runs and seven hits in five innings of work against the Chicago White Sox in Minnesota’s third game of the season.

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Photo: Jesse Johnson, USA Today